scholarly journals Impassioned Communication and Virtual Support Roles of Online Postings: The Case of Self-Harmers

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Sarah Davis ◽  
Christopher Alan Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Disenfranchised Grief ◽  
Message Boards ◽  
Online Message Boards ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Virtual Support

Although there is an emerging literature on online users support groups, limited research has focused on the online users support groups concerned with self-harm. This study reports the findings of inductive content analysis of self-harm online messages from one self-harm online users group. One hundred messages were examined. Categories were determined and inductive analysis revealed online self-harm postings showed two themes. The first theme was “impassioned communication,” 76% of the postings had this major theme. There were three subthemes included in this theme: being a “failure,” “people not understanding,” and “improvement.” The second theme was “virtual support.” Although presented as two separate themes, “impassioned communication” and “virtual support” are interrelated as some postings suggested the need for support with impassioned communication. These results support the established view that the Internet is the place where individuals can access emotional support or social integration, especially helpful for those who are, or feel, marginalized (e.g., those experiencing disenfranchised grief and self-harming). This study shows the usefulness of utilizing online message boards as a research tool for conducting research among populations that are difficult to access.

Abstract P851: Embracing Virtual Connection: An Innovative Systemwide Approach to Support Groups

Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly J Rossi ◽  
Nicole Westensee ◽  
Dienst Elizabeth ◽  
Danielle Hagedorn ◽  
Julie Schafer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Support Group ◽  
High Risk Patient ◽  
Stroke Survivors ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Caregiver Support ◽  
Stroke Population ◽  
Virtual Platform ◽  
Problem Solve ◽  
Virtual Support

Background: Following a statewide stay-at-home order, Centura Stroke Support Group meetings were postponed indefinitely due to our high-risk patient population. Throughout the organization, stroke coordinators and support group leaders recognized the importance of community and continued support for the stroke population. The objective was to develop a creative survivor & caregiver support offering following social distancing guidelines given the Covid-19 restrictions, while collaborating & expanding opportunities for stroke support across the Centura system. Purpose: We hypothesized that we could successfully support stroke survivors & caregivers through a virtual platform during the pandemic & improve accessibility regardless of participant location or transportation. Methods: Group leaders assessed stroke survivors & caregivers ongoing needs through weekly outreach identifying the importance of the support group and a need for continued group access during the Covid-19 pandemic. Attendee’s indicated an interest in virtual support & a willingness to learn the required virtual platform. Leaders collaborated across the system to organize efforts in reaching survivors & caregivers at each hospital while sharing group curriculum & education systemwide; thus, allowing groups to meet at different times and increasing overall accessibility. Facilitators worked with individuals to problem solve potential issues navigating a virtual format. Results: The virtual format successfully provided support from the comfort & safety of home. Attendance increased in comparison to an in-person format. When asked about preference for an in-person setting only vs. a combination of in-person & virtual format, 80% selected a combination format. Working together across the system, stroke coordinators & group facilitators benefitted from a broader range of resources and connected the greater stroke community across Colorado. Conclusion: Regardless of future restrictions, hospitals should consider virtual support groups to increase accessibility for survivors & caregivers. There are benefits of the virtual platform which expand access to support by reducing barriers such as community availability and transportation.

Social Media Activities

2014 ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Kristina Heinonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Social Connection ◽  
Message Boards ◽  
Online Ratings ◽  
Online Message Boards ◽  
Marketing Activities

Consumers are increasingly consuming, participating, contributing, and sharing different types of online content. This is influencing the marketing activities traditionally controlled and performed by companies. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize the activities consumers perform in social media. Social media denote content created by individual consumers such as online ratings or verbal reviews, online message boards/forums, photos/video sites, blogs, tags, and social networking sites. A conceptual framework for consumers' social media activities is developed and qualitatively substantiated. Social media activities are based on the motives for the activities, including information, social connection, and entertainment. The chapter contributes to research on social media and online communities by describing user behavior and motivations related to the user-created services. Managerially, the study deepens the understanding of different challenges related to users' activities on social media and the motivations associated with those activities.

scholarly journals Relationship between Psychological Factors and Social Support after Lifting of Evacuation Order in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Yujiro Kuroda ◽  
Yohei Koyama
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Permanent Housing ◽  
Support Measures ◽  
The Status ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
The Village ◽  
Joint Assessment

We examined the relationships among social support and psychological variables and investigated the status of social support among villagers whose evacuation order had been lifted. A written questionnaire was posted to 4828 registered residents of Iitate Village; 1405 valid responses were received. The main finding (in joint assessment by local and external experts) was the “need for professional support” (191 respondents, 13.6%). A multivariate analysis found that among those living in permanent housing outside the village, the need for support was significantly more likely for those without emotional support or instrumental support than for those not providing support. The associations between perceived social support and living environment suggest the need to strengthen social support measures in areas where evacuation orders are yet to be lifted, and provide useful information for examining the effects of future support efforts.

Collecting and media change, or: Listening to Phish via app

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 969-989
Author(s):  
Scott Kushner
Keyword(s):  
Mass Production ◽  
Cassette Tape ◽  
Message Boards ◽  
Recorded Sound ◽  
Parallel Motion ◽  
Online Message Boards ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Change ◽  
Relationship Of

Practices of collecting are constrained by media circumstances. To show how changing media circumstances can occasion changes in collecting practices, this article explores one case study, an iOS app developed by a Phish fan to allow streaming audio of fan-made recordings of Phish concert performances. Such practices are part of a history of unofficial music collecting that parallels the history of recorded sound. This case study shows how one collecting community’s practices evolved in the context of changing media conditions: from cassette tape to CD-R to MP3 to streams (and a parallel motion from print to online message boards to app). This progression illustrates the ways that different ways of listening to and accessing recorded music afford different possibilities of collecting music, different links between listener and music, and different relationships among listeners. More precisely, Phish concert recordings, which lent themselves to collection when circulated on cassette, are no longer available to collect when they circulate as streaming media, because streaming is characterized by a relationship of access rather than possession. Among devoted fans, streaming recordings provoke a cultural emphasis on knowledge about music, rather than accumulation of recordings. My argument is rooted in prevailing theories of collecting, which situate collecting as a component of consumer culture emerging from the capitalist expansion stimulated by 19th-century mass production. Ultimately, I argue that when an object of collecting is displaced by changing media conditions, new collecting practices emerge to fill the void.

Social Support and Divorce among American Couples

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-109
Author(s):  
Marina Haddock Potter
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Perceived Support ◽  
Spousal Relationships ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Divorce Risk

This study investigates the relationship between extradyadic social support and divorce risk, net of existing need for support. Social support aids couples in weathering challenges but social ties may also enable divorce or compete with spousal relationships. Using a nationally representative sample of married couples in the National Survey of Families and Households ( N = 7,321), this study employs discrete-time event history models to test the associations of perceived support and help received with divorce risk. Results indicate that perceived support is positively associated with divorce, and this relationship persists even after accounting for couples’ needs. Specifically, perceived emotional support positively predicts divorce risk. This finding suggests that social ties may sometimes challenge marital relationships or facilitate divorce.

Acute Loss and the Social Construction of Blame

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
African American Parents ◽  
Disenfranchised Grief ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
Murdered Children ◽  
Middle Class Blacks

Using interview and observation data from white and African-American parents of murdered children, this article explores a primary social process accompanying acute loss: the social construction of blame. Findings reveal that race and class are primary forces that shape not only the experience of loss, but also attributions of cause, designations of blame, and the construction of post-mortem identities. While poor Black informants encountered avoidance strategies on the part of authorities (e.g., police) when their child was murdered, whites and upper middle-class Blacks received emotional support. This differential treatment by authorities led to either legitimate or disenfranchised grief, both of which were addressed by the strategy of “sanctification,” a form of emotion work.

scholarly journals A formal support group for esophageal atresia and/or tracheoesophageal fistula in South Africa may improve the outcome of these children and their families

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Corné De Vos ◽  
Werner De Vos ◽  
Daniel Sidler
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Esophageal Atresia ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Tracheoesophageal Fistula ◽  
Treatment Plan ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Formal Support

The psychosocial aspect of various congenital anomalies like esophageal atresia (EA) with/or without a tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) being the cause of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety in parents of these children, is often overlooked by medical professionals. Support groups may be useful to address a part of this problem and form an important aspect of emotional support for any rare or congenital disease. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the need for a formal support group for parents of patients born with EA and to emphasize the role of emotional support for these parents and children. A questionnaire was sent to members of an informal WhatsApp group which included participants with diverse demographics across private and public platforms, across South Africa. The questions focused on 3 main areas: demographic data, diagnosis and the surgery, and information about the participant’s emotional support. All the data were inserted in an excel datasheet and descriptive statistical analysis was used. Questions were sent to 14 members of an informal WhatsApp group.  Eight were included in the study.  All 8 participants were mothers of children born with an EA with a TEF. The questions about the need for emotional support focus on the time after the baby was born. The majority (87.5%) of the mothers felt that they could bond with their babies during pregnancy, but in contrast, 75% felt that they missed an opportunity to bond with their babies after birth, mainly because they were not allowed to hold their babies for up to 11 days after birth. Only 1 of the mothers were in contact with other families with children born with EA, and 6 of the remaining 7 agreed that this would have helped them during this emotionally challenging time. All 8 thought that sharing their stories with others could have helped them emotionally and all agreed that an EA/TEF support group was a good idea. The family, as another patient, ought to be treated and included in the overall treatment plan if we aim to improve the quality of life for both the patients and their families.  Disease-specific support groups can play a major role in the emotional well-being of both the children born with EA and their families.

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