Thematic online forums as a space for decision making on emigration and overcoming pre-acculturation stress

The purpose of the study: psychological analysis of the content and key topics of Russian online forums on emigration in order to determine their potential role in the development and implementation of emigration intentions, as well as in the prevention and overcoming pre-acculturation stress in participants. The data sample consisted of 1,863 publicly available messages published between March 2019 and February 2020 in five most popular thematic online forums. A qualitative method of thematic analysis of data was used as the most appropriate to the nature of the material being analyzed and the purpose of the study. The main groups of users of these forums are identified: “potential emigrants”, “real emigrants”, “returning emigrants”. The contents of the key semantic subtopics corresponding to the main stages of the emigration process are presented: “decision making on emigration”, “emigration implementation”, “acculturation”, “returning migration”. The informational, communicative, supporting, stimulating functions of online forums and their role in the development of emigration intentions are disclosed. The risks and possible negative consequences of participating in such forums in the event of uncritical perception of the information broadcast by participants are shown.