論文

査読有り 本文へのリンクあり 国際誌
2021年8月12日

Estimation of Psychological Distress in Japanese Youth Through Narrative Writing: Text-Based Stylometric and Sentiment Analyses.

JMIR formative research
  • Masae Manabe
  • ,
  • Kongmeng Liew
  • ,
  • Shuntaro Yada
  • ,
  • Shoko Wakamiya
  • ,
  • Eiji Aramaki

5
8
開始ページ
e29500
終了ページ
記述言語
英語
掲載種別
研究論文(学術雑誌)
DOI
10.2196/29500
出版者・発行元
{JMIR} Publications Inc.

BACKGROUND: Internalizing mental illnesses associated with psychological distress are often underdetected. Text-based detection using natural language processing (NLP) methods is increasingly being used to complement conventional detection efforts. However, these approaches often rely on self-disclosure through autobiographical narratives that may not always be possible, especially in the context of the collectivistic Japanese culture. OBJECTIVE: We propose the use of narrative writing as an alternative resource for mental illness detection in youth. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the textual characteristics of narratives written by youth with psychological distress; our research focuses on the detection of psychopathological tendencies in written imaginative narratives. METHODS: Using NLP tools such as stylometric measures and lexicon-based sentiment analysis, we examined short narratives from 52 Japanese youth (mean age 19.8 years, SD 3.1) obtained through crowdsourcing. Participants wrote a short narrative introduction to an imagined story before completing a questionnaire to quantify their tendencies toward psychological distress. Based on this score, participants were categorized into higher distress and lower distress groups. The written narratives were then analyzed using NLP tools and examined for between-group differences. Although outside the scope of this study, we also carried out a supplementary analysis of narratives written by adults using the same procedure. RESULTS: Youth demonstrating higher tendencies toward psychological distress used significantly more positive (happiness-related) words, revealing differences in valence of the narrative content. No other significant differences were observed between the high and low distress groups. CONCLUSIONS: Youth with tendencies toward mental illness were found to write more positive stories that contained more happiness-related terms. These results may potentially have widespread implications on psychological distress screening on online platforms, particularly in cultures such as Japan that are not accustomed to self-disclosure. Although the mechanisms that we propose in explaining our results are speculative, we believe that this interpretation paves the way for future research in online surveillance and detection efforts.

リンク情報
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/29500 本文へのリンクあり
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34387556
PubMed Central
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391726
ID情報
  • DOI : 10.2196/29500
  • ORCIDのPut Code : 98393086
  • PubMed ID : 34387556
  • PubMed Central 記事ID : PMC8391726

エクスポート
BibTeX RIS