Motivation Research on the Content Creation Behaviour of Young Adults in Anxiety Disorder Online Communities

With the advancements in science and technology and the improvement of medical care, mental health problems are receiving increasing attention. Increasing numbers of children, adolescents, and young adults are susceptible to anxiety. This paper assesses young adults based on self-determination theory and the theory of planned behaviour to determine the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and mediating variables behind young adults’ content creation behaviour within anxiety disorder online communities (ADOCs). In addition, the paper introduces empathy as a moderating variable, builds a model of the content creation behavioural motivation of young adults, studies the motivation behind young adults’ content creation behaviour in ADOCs, and determines the moderating effect of empathy on young adults’ content creation behaviour. The research data were obtained using a questionnaire survey, and the SmartPLS structural equation model was used for empirical analysis. The study found that expressing one’s anxiety was the most obvious motivation, the content creation intention of young adults significantly positively affected their content creation behaviour, perceived enjoyment motivation had a significant negative influence on young adults’ intention to create content, reward motivation had no significant influence on the content creation intention of young adults, other motivations had significant positive influences on young adults’ content creation intention, and empathy only had a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between self-efficacy and young adults’ content creation intention. This study not only enriches and expands research on motivation theory but also has practical significance for the improvement and active development of ADOCs.