Content Moderator Mental Health and Associations with Coping Styles: Replication and Extension of Previous Studies

• DOI: 10.3390/bs15040487
• Publication Date: 2025-04-08T09:59:00Z
• Authors: Ruth Spence; Jeffrey DeMarco

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 that the 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 that 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 quarter 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-focussed problem solving, as well as a need for the efficacy of wellbeing services to be evaluated more broadly.