"People do not like to be poked at and prodded while they're in their support group:" Exploring Rules for Researchers in Mental Health Subreddits

Abstract

Mental health peer support communities on Reddit are among the most studied subreddits, but demand additional ethical consideration because of their sensitive subject matter. We conducted a content analysis of research and solicitation rules from 142 mental health peer support subreddits, coding rules for actions outlined for solicitors and moderators, moderated research activity types, and rule rationale. We found that communities often ban research outright and that moderators are commonly positioned as situated ethics reviewers who vet solicitation requests. Rule rationale centered on preserving a safe place for peer support, keeping posts on-topic and not allowing solicitors to capitalize on or endanger the wellbeing of the community and its members. Some communities distinguished academic or professional solicitation from informal or for-profit requests. Only two subreddits explicitly addressed data scraping, despite its prevalence in computational social science research. Drawing on these findings, we offer guidance for researchers seeking to conduct more ethical research with and about online mental health communities, including prioritizing community beneficence, engaging with moderators proactively, and designing studies that are relevant and accessible to community members.