Seeking Support, Posting Your Sorrows, and Getting Misinformed in Return A codebook for a quantitative content analysis on mental health online support groups (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Bizzotto ◽  
Susanna Morlino ◽  
Peter Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Chronic Patients ◽  
New Device

BACKGROUND The potential of the Internet to help chronic patients to cope with their condition was present from the times when it had become clear what types of services the new device would provide. Expected changes were beneficial, many thought, for communication between patients and physicians, patients and health care institutions. Some reserve was discernible when Web 2.0 came, and increased communication from patient to patient with it. OBJECTIVE Keeping this development in mind, the projected study is intended to find out how and why such online support groups for mental health can have negative outcomes for the people who turn there for help. It aspires to reach beyond the simple equations that communication between patients and physicians is good, while patient-to-patient communication is dangerous. METHODS A codebook for the content analysis of Facebook online support groups has been developed and a content analysis will be conducted on bundles of posts. Three consecutive periods of one year will be studied. The sample will consist of utterances in two groups, one moderated the other unmoderated. The major analysis will bring together indications of health care shortcomings, medical errors, and holding wrong health beliefs on the one side and conditions and perceptions on the other. Aside from a few analyses comparing different bundles, individual utterances will be the unit of analysis in most cases. A bundle will be selected (in a time-stratified sample) if a group member asks a declarative or procedural knowledge question, seeks help in making a decision, or wants to be emotionally supported. The design will allow three more minor perspectives: comparing moderated and unmoderated support groups, describing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by separating the study period into before Covid (year 2019), Year 1 (2020) and Year 2 (2021) of the COVID-19 Pandemic. RESULTS We demonstrated the usability of the proposed systematic framework with 11 threads (61 utterances) coded independently by two coders: using Krippendorff’s alpha, the coders met intercoder reliability (α = .88, range: .73- 1). CONCLUSIONS The codebook is a rigorous and standardized method for the analysis of discussions in online support groups. For discussion and interpretation, we expect unhealthy present relations between health literacy and patient empowerment or a development towards such a state to decisively explain an output by the health care system that falls short of an optimum.

Investigation of the “alternative” effects of an online support group for mental health problems among Japanese adults: A cross-sectional study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Kobori ◽  
Naoki Yoshinaga
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Online Support Group ◽  
Usage Frequency

BACKGROUND Owing to the rapid development of social networking services, online support groups vary widely both in goal and structure. Several studies have shown the potential effectiveness of online support groups, such as reducing psychological distress (eg depression) among individuals with mental health problems. However, online support groups often do not aim at effectiveness regarding distress-relief-related outcomes. OBJECTIVE The U2plus.jp (hereinafter U2plus) is an online support group for individuals with depression; in it, people support each other in structured ways while engaging in simple cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) exercises. This study aimed to examine if usage frequency of the U2plus functions are associated with decreased stigma and increased consumer. METHODS In total, 355 U2plus users took part in an online survey. They were asked what therapy they had ever received, how often they logged into it and used each of its functions, and completed the following questionnaires: The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Perceived Devaluation Discrimination Scale, and the General Help Seeking Scale. RESULTS Regarding the therapy they received, 89.3% (n=308) had been on medication for mental health problems, and 67.5% (n=233) had received psychotherapy or mental health counselling. Regarding the usage frequency, approximately 20% of the participants signed in to U2plus and used its functions more than once a week. The usage frequency of U2plus functions was not associated with perceived stigma. However, usage frequency of some functions was correlated to help seeking intentions from formal sources (eg doctors and psychologists). Moreover, 90% of the participants had a history of medication for their mental health. Additionally, the more depressed participants were, the more frequently they used U2plus. CONCLUSIONS It was suggested that online support groups may serve as an alternative treatment option for those who are already undergoing pharmacological treatment and are willing to seek help from whatever source they deem helpful.

Online Talk About Mental Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Lamerichs ◽  
Wyke Stommel
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Online Counseling ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse

There is a need to focus on research conducted on online talk about mental health in the domains of ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis (CA), Discursive Psychology (DP), and Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA). We use the notion of “talk” in this article, as opposed to what could be considered a more common term such as “discourse,” to highlight that we approach computer-mediated discourse as inherently interactional. It is recipient designed and unfolds sequentially, responding to messages that have come before and building a context for messages that are constructed next. We will refer to the above domains that all share this view as CA(-related) approaches. A characterizing feature of interactional approaches to online mental health talk is their focus on in-depth analyses of relatively small amounts of data. With this focus at the center of their attention, they sit in the wider field of Discourse Analysis (DA), or Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) who use language as their lens to understand human interaction. DA and CMDA research include a much wider set of both micro- and macro-analytic language-focused approaches to capture online discourse. Of all the CA(-related) work on online materials, a disproportionally large number of studies appear to deal with (mental) health talk. We aim to answer the question what the field of research on online mental health talk has yielded in terms of findings and methodologies. Centrally, CA (-related) studies of online mental health talk have aimed to grasp the actions people accomplish and the identities they invoke when they address their health concerns. Examples of actions in online mental health talk in particular are presenting oneself, describing a problem, or offering advice. Relevant questions for the above approaches that consider language-as-social-action are how these different actions are brought off and how they are received, by closely examining contributions such as e-mail and chat postings and their subsequent responses. With a focus on talk about mental health, this article will cover studies of online support groups (OSGs, also called online communities), and interaction in online counseling programs, mainly via online chat sessions. This article is organized as follows. In the historiography, we present an overview of CA(-related) work on online mental health talk. We discuss findings from studies of online support groups (OSGs) first and then move to results from studies on online counseling. The start of our historiography section, however, sets out to briefly highlight how the Internet may offer several particularly attractive features for those with mental health problems or a mental illness. After the historiography, we discuss what an interactional approach of online mental health talk looks like and focuses on. We offer examples of empirical studies to illustrate how written contributions to a forum, and e-mails or chat posts that are part of online counseling sessions are examined as interaction and which types of findings this results in. We conclude with a review of methodological issues that pertain to the field, address the most important ethical considerations that come into play when examining online mental health talk, and will lastly highlight some areas for future research.

scholarly journals The Public Health Impact and Policy Implications of Online Support Group Use for Mental Health in Singapore: Cross-Sectional Survey (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumarasan Roystonn ◽  
Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar ◽  
Boon Yiang Chua ◽  
Rajeswari Sambasivam ◽  
Saleha Shafie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Online Support Group ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Treatment Services

BACKGROUND The wide mental health treatment gap continues to pose a global and local public health challenge. Online support groups are on the rise and could be used to complement formal treatment services for mental health. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine the prevalence of online support group use and explore factors associated with the use in the general population using data from a national cross-sectional mental health survey in Singapore. METHODS Singapore residents aged 18 years and above participated in a nationally representative household survey in which the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0 was administered by trained interviewers to examine the use of online support groups for mental health. Multiple logistic regressions were used to analyze the association of online support group use with various sociodemographic and health factors. RESULTS A total of 6110 respondents with complete data were included in this study. Overall, 10 individuals per 1000 adults (1%) reported seeking help from online support groups for their mental health problems. Compared to younger adults (those aged 18 to 34 years) and those with university education, individuals aged 50 to 64 years (<i>P</i>&lt;.001; OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.0-0.3) and those with preuniversity qualifications (<i>P</i>=.02; OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.0-0.8) were less likely to use online support groups for mental health, respectively. Participants with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorder were 6.8 times more likely (<i>P</i>&lt;.001; 95% CI 3.0-15.4) to use an online support group; in particular, individuals with major depressive disorder (<i>P</i>&lt;.001; OR 5.4, 95% CI 2.1-13.8) and obsessive compulsive disorder (<i>P</i>=.01; OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.3-9.7) were more likely to use an online support group for their mental health. CONCLUSIONS Online support groups could be used to complement formal treatment services, especially for mood and anxiety-related disorders. As online support group use for mental health issues may be more prevalent among younger people, early detection and accurate information in online support groups may guide individuals toward seeking professional help for their mental health problems.

scholarly journals The Effects of Situational Peers and Support Groups on the Well-Being of Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 408-409
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jeanblanc ◽  
Carol Musil ◽  
Christopher Burant ◽  
McKenzie Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Multigenerational Households ◽  
Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
Group Engagement

Abstract Grandmothers raising their grandchildren face not only the demands of parenting, but the added burden of parenting a child they did not expect to raise. Similarly, grandmothers living in multigenerational households need to balance expectations and household/caregiving tasks across the generations. As part of a nationwide RCT designed to lessen the stress associated with the caregiving burden of raising grandchildren, we asked 342 grandmothers raising their grandchildren about their engagement with support groups and whether their social network included other grandfamilies. Here, we examine the effect of situational peers and support group engagement on grandmother’s stress, reward, social support, mental health, mindfulness, and resourcefulness. Of our sample, 53.8% (N=184) reported belonging to a support group. The majority of participants (138) belonged to online support groups on Facebook, 41 reported participating in in-person support groups, 3 belonged to both in-person and online support groups, and 8 did not respond. When asked whether and how well our participants knew other families like theirs, 31% (106) said they did not know any, 40.6% (139) knew of at least one, but not well, and 28.4% (97) said they had at least one friend with a family like her own. Knowing other families like their own affected self-appraised stress, but no other outcomes. Grandmothers participating in support groups had lower mindfulness scores, higher stress, and worse mental health scores than grandmothers not participating in support groups, possibly reflecting the higher need for support among those participants.

scholarly journals The Public Health Impact and Policy Implications of Online Support Group Use for Mental Health in Singapore: Cross-Sectional Survey

10.2196/18114 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. e18114
Author(s):  
Kumarasan Roystonn ◽  
Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar ◽  
Boon Yiang Chua ◽  
Rajeswari Sambasivam ◽  
Saleha Shafie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Online Support Group ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Treatment Services

Background The wide mental health treatment gap continues to pose a global and local public health challenge. Online support groups are on the rise and could be used to complement formal treatment services for mental health. Objective This study aimed to examine the prevalence of online support group use and explore factors associated with the use in the general population using data from a national cross-sectional mental health survey in Singapore. Methods Singapore residents aged 18 years and above participated in a nationally representative household survey in which the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0 was administered by trained interviewers to examine the use of online support groups for mental health. Multiple logistic regressions were used to analyze the association of online support group use with various sociodemographic and health factors. Results A total of 6110 respondents with complete data were included in this study. Overall, 10 individuals per 1000 adults (1%) reported seeking help from online support groups for their mental health problems. Compared to younger adults (those aged 18 to 34 years) and those with university education, individuals aged 50 to 64 years (P<.001; OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.0-0.3) and those with preuniversity qualifications (P=.02; OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.0-0.8) were less likely to use online support groups for mental health, respectively. Participants with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorder were 6.8 times more likely (P<.001; 95% CI 3.0-15.4) to use an online support group; in particular, individuals with major depressive disorder (P<.001; OR 5.4, 95% CI 2.1-13.8) and obsessive compulsive disorder (P=.01; OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.3-9.7) were more likely to use an online support group for their mental health. Conclusions Online support groups could be used to complement formal treatment services, especially for mood and anxiety-related disorders. As online support group use for mental health issues may be more prevalent among younger people, early detection and accurate information in online support groups may guide individuals toward seeking professional help for their mental health problems.

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