Exploring the Communication of Social Support within Virtual Communities: A Content Analysis of Messages Posted to an Online HIV/AIDS Support Group
By P. Mo, Neil S. Coulson. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2008
313 citations recorded by the source corpus.
ABSTRACT The present study examined the nature of social support exchanged within an online HIV/AIDS support group. Content analysis was conducted with reference to five types of social support (information support, tangible assistance, esteem support, network support, and emotional support) on 85 threads (1,138 messages). Our analysis revealed that many of the messages offered informational and emotional support, followed by esteem support and network support, with tangible assistance the least frequently offered. Results suggest that this online support group is a popular forum through which individuals living with HIV/AIDS can offer social support. Our findings have implications for health care professionals who support individuals living with HIV/AIDS.
Subfields: General Health Professions, Infectious Diseases, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/33a60dd6a39d5d7c40bb09a6086173962c1a371a
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In General Health Professions
In Sociology and Political Science
Citations in the corpus
- The Social Dimension of Blogging about Health: Health Blogging, Social Support, and Well-being (2011, background): “Emotional and information support were the most common types of support documented in at least two studies of computer-mediated support groups (Braithwaite, Waldron, & Finn, 1999; Mo & Coulson, 2008).”
- Social support in an Internet weight loss community (2009, unknown): “For example, online social support for psoriasis [14], infertility [15], Huntington’s disease [4], and HIV [5] can help an individual cope with the psychosocial stressors associated with the health condition, make informed health decisions, and find healthcare providers.”