ABSTRACT
Objectives: To evaluate
the bullying in individuals with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) by
Twitter analysis.
Materials and Methods: Twitter’s advanced search function was
used while the term ‘cleft lip and palate’ was kept constant, and the
selected keywords were ‘bully’, ‘bullying’, ‘bullied’ and ‘teased’. A
total of 150 tweets that met the criteria were selected. The data were
qualitatively evaluated by thematic analysis and the themes were
determined based on this analysis.
Results: Most of the tweets were posted by a layperson (76%).
Also, nearly half of the tweets were categorized in the theme ‘personal
experience of being bullied’ (43%). The tweets were distributed
according to their uploader status as CLP subjects (46%), irrelevant
individuals (28%), and parents of CLP subjects’ (26%). Of the 150
tweets evaluated, 74 were identified as negative, while 25 were
identified as neutral and 51 as positive. No significant differences
were detected in retweet and like numbers between negative, neutral, and
positive comments (P > .05).
Conclusions: This is the first study in the literature
regarding the bullying suffered by individuals with CLP using Twitter
data. Twitter is a social media platform for bullying victims with CLP
to share their experiences and seek for social support.
KEY WORDS : Cleft lip and palate; Bullying; Twitter;
Social media