Kontekstual: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi
Vol 4, No 2 (2025)

The Broken Home Narrative on TikTok: An Analysis of Content Hashtag #BrokenHome

Efendi, Moh Alvian (University of Muhammadiyah Malang)
Nasvian, Moch Fuad (University of Muhammadiyah Malang)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Dec 2025

Abstract

TikTok is a popular global social media platform, yet limited research has examined how it is used to express emotional experiences related to family trauma such as broken homes. The hashtag #brokenhome has become a space for sharing personal stories and emotions about family disruption, but the content patterns and user engagement in these videos remain underexplored. This study aims to analyze the dominant emotional themes in TikTok videos tagged #brokenhome, investigating how creators share their experiences, offer advice, and evoke emotional responses. A summative content analysis was conducted on the top 100 most-viewed #brokenhome TikTok videos (June 15, 2020 to January 25, 2025). Results show that personal narratives and emotional expressions (especially sadness) were the most common content themes, followed by advice/information and social support. Notably, no videos were promotional and only one was misleading. Personal narrative and emotionally expressive videos garnered the highest user engagement, while videos offering social support also saw significant interaction. These findings highlight TikTok’s role as a platform for emotional expression, identity formation, and communal healing, with implications for understanding social media’s role in emotional support and mental health.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

kontekstual

Publisher

Subject

Arts Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences

Description

Kontekstual merupakan media publikasi hasil penelitian ilmu komunikasi yang diterbitkan atas kerjasama program studi ilmu komunikasi UBL dan ikatan sarjana komunikasi indonesia (ISKI) sejak tahun 2022. Jurnal ini bertujuan untuk menyebarluaskan hasil penelitian/riset kepada para akademisi, praktisi, ...