We just published our final paper (for now) about how people discuss mental health on livestreams/ in livestreaming communities! We would never recommend that livestreams replace formal therapy but they can still be useful in lowering stigma, sharing resources and information, giving emotional support to others, etc. I’m especially proud that three of these papers are led by undergraduate students.

Uttarapong, .J., LaMastra, N., Gandhi, R., Lee, Y-H., Yuan, C. W., Wohn, D. Y. (2022). Twitch Users’ Motivations and Practices During Community Mental Health Discussions In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 6, Issue GROUP, January 2022 Article No. 5, pp. 1–23 [pdf]

Gandhi, R., Cook, C. L., LaMastra, N., Uttarapong, J., Wohn, D. Y. (2021). An Exploration of Mental Health Discussions in Live Streaming Gaming Communities. Frontiers in Psychology, Human-Media Interaction

LaMastra, N., Uttarapong, J., Gandhi, R., Cook, C.L., & Wohn, D. Y. (2020). How a Live Streamer’s Choice in Played Game Affects Mental Health Conversations. In Proceedings of CHIPLAY 2020 [pdf]

Lee, Y-H., Yuan, C. W., & Wohn, D. Y. (2020). How Video Streamers’ Mental Health Disclosures Affect Viewers’ Risk Perceptions, Health Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1808405 [pdf]