Using social media to explore the psychological features of the female adults with childhood sexual abuse

[Objective] The purpose of this study was to explore the difference in psychological characteristics including social attitudes, well-being, and mental health between the females with sexual abuse experience in childhood (CSA group) and females without this experience (control group) based on the microblogging data calculation model.

[Methods] This study collected 46 victims (all females) and 46 non-victims (sex matching with CSA group) on Sina Weibo, crawled all the microblogs of the selected users and and calculate its score on various psychological characteristics by microblogging data calculation model.

[Results] Using independent sample t-test, the results showed that there were significant differences in social attitudes, well-being, and especially mental health. At the same time, we also found that there were differences in microblog behavior characteristics between the two groups. Compared with non-victims, the victims had higher scores in depression, stress and other health characteristics, and lower scores in psychological characteristics such as life satisfaction and self-acceptance. However, they did not reach the critical thresholds for the diagnosis of mental diseases.

[Limitations] The psychological features obtained from microblogging data calculation model can not completed equivalent to the psychological features obtained from psychological scales and can not replace the rigid psychological measurement.

[Conclusion] The childhood sexual abuse experience has negative effect on female. However, this effect is not sufficient to meet the threshold criteria for mental illness.