Cross-Cultural Differences in Mental Health Expressions on Social Media

Culture moderates the way individuals perceive and express mental distress. Current understandings of mental health expressions on social media, however, are predominantly derived from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) contexts. To address this gap, we examine mental health posts on Reddit made by individuals geolocated in India, to identify variations in social media language specific to the Indian context compared to users from the Rest of the World (RoW). Our experiments reveal significant psychosocial variations in emotions (sadness in India vs anxiety in RoW), temporal orientation (present-focused in India vs past-focused in the West), and sociocultural aspects (substance use vs work/achievement). Clinical psychologists practicing in India validated the findings and underlined significant overlap in mental health-related concerns observed in social media posts and in-person sessions. This study demonstrates the potential of social media platforms for identifying cross-cultural differences in mental health struggles (e.g. seeking help in India vs seeking peer support in RoW). Future research should investigate how mental health assessment can be culturally adapted to personalize interventions, ensuring equitable mental health care for individuals from all cultural backgrounds.