# Signs of Struggle: Spotting Cognitive Distortions across Language and Register

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the challenge of detecting cognitive distortions in digital text across different languages and registers, focusing on Dutch adolescent forum posts, and evaluates domain adaptation methods for improved generalization.

## Contribution

It is the first comprehensive study on cross-lingual and cross-register detection of cognitive distortions, highlighting the importance of domain adaptation techniques.

## Key findings

- Language and style variations impact model accuracy
- Domain adaptation improves cross-lingual transfer
- Cross-register generalization remains challenging

## Abstract

Rising mental health issues among youth have increased interest in automated approaches for detecting early signs of psychological distress in digital text. One key focus is the identification of cognitive distortions, irrational thought patterns that have a role in aggravating mental distress. Early detection of these distortions may enable timely, low-cost interventions. While prior work has focused on English clinical data, we present the first in-depth study of cross-lingual and cross-register generalization of cognitive distortion detection, analyzing forum posts written by Dutch adolescents. Our findings show that while changes in language and writing style can significantly affect model performance, domain adaptation methods show the most promise.