Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 17, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 26, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 27, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Abusers indoors and coronavirus outside: an examination of public discourse about COVID-19 and family violence on Twitter
ABSTRACT
Background:
Family violence (including IPV/domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse) and sexual violence are the hidden pandemics during the COVID-19. The rates of family violence are rising fast. Women and children are disproportionately affected and vulnerable during the pandemic.
Objective:
This study aims to provide a large-scale analysis of public discourse mentioning family violence and the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter.
Methods:
We analyzed 301,606 Tweets related to family violence and COVID-19 from April 12 to July 16, 2020, for this study. We used the machine learning approach, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and identified salient themes, topics, and representative Twitter examples.
Results:
We extracted nine themes on family violence and COVID-19 pandemic, including (1) the Impact of COVID-19 on family violence (e.g., rising rates, hotline calls increased, murder & homicide); (2) the types (e.g., child abuse, domestic violence, sexual violence) and (3) forms of family violence (e.g., physical aggression, coercive control); (4) risk factors of family violence (e.g., alcohol abuse, financial constraints, gun, quarantine); (5) victims of family violence (e.g., LGBTQ, women, and women of color, children); (6) social services for family violence (e.g., hotlines, social workers, confidential services, shelters, funding); (7) law enforcement response (e.g., 911 calls, police arrest, protective orders, abuse reports); (8) Social movement/ awareness (e.g., support victims, raise awareness); and (9) domestic violence-related news (e.g., Tara Reade, Melissa Derosa).
Conclusions:
The COVID-19 has an impact on family violence. This study overcomes the limitation of existing scholarship that lacks data for consequences of COVID-19 on family violence. We contribute to the understanding of family violence during the pandemic by providing surveillance in Tweets, which is essential to identify potentially useful policy programs in offering targeted support for victims and survivors and preparing for the next wave.
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Copyright
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