Content moderator mental health and associations with coping styles: replication and extension of previous studies

There is an increasing evidence base that demonstrates the psychological toll of content moderation on the employees that perform this crucial task. Nevertheless, content moderators (CMs) can be based worldwide and have varying working conditions. Therefore, there is a need for studies to be replicated to ensure results are robust. The current study used a large sample of commercial CMs employed by an international company to replicate the results from two previous studies which relied on an anonymous online survey. The results pertaining to mental health, wellbeing and the effectiveness of wellbeing services for this population were mostly replicated. Over a third of CMs demonstrated moderate to severe psychological distress and a quarter were experiencing low wellbeing. Further, the results suggest the potential utility for interventions that increase problem-focused problem solving, as well as a need for the efficacy of wellbeing services to be evaluated more broadly.

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