scholarly journals Meeting the support needs of patients with complex regional pain syndrome through innovative use of wiki technology: a mixed-methods study

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (24) ◽  
pp. 1-98
Author(s):  
Jeff Gavin ◽  
Karen Rodham ◽  
Neil Coulson ◽  
Leon Watts
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Pain Syndrome ◽  
Online Forum ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Writing Task

BackgroundUsing online discussion forums can have a positive impact on psychological well-being through development of shared group identity and validation of thoughts, feelings and experiences. This may be particularly beneficial to people with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), who often become socially isolated, lack mobility and face threats to their sense of identity. We set up a peer-support online forum to identify the nature of support provided and to explore its development over time. We then introduced a collaborative writing task to facilitate further the development of social processes implicated in psychological support.Research questions(1) What constitutes support in newly developed online interactions? (2) How does the process of giving and receiving support online evolve? (3) Can the combination of an online forum and a collaborative writing task increase support relative to an online forum alone?DesignThis is a three-phase mixed-methods research design. Phase 1: an online forum was launched. Phase 2: forum members were invited to cowrite a patient-centred CRPS information resource. Phase 3: the resource was shared and feedback was sought.ParticipantsPosts from 26 members (seven males, 19 females) were analysed. The mean age of members was 35.6 years. The number of years since diagnosis was available for 14 members (ranging from 5 months to 10 years with a mean duration of 3.9 years).Data analysisIn order to explore what constitutes support in newly developed online interactions, an inductive thematic analysis was conducted on all ‘introductory posts’ posted during phase 1. In order to explore how the process of giving and receiving support online evolved, a deductive content analysis using the Social Support Behavior Code was conducted on all forum posts posted during the first 12 months.ResultsFive themes were identified in members’ first posts. Three of these themes contributed to the development of a ‘common-identity’ community, while the remaining two established a positive tone, consistent with that of a ‘common-bond’ community. Content analysis revealed that support requests were present in 15.5% of posts: predominantly informational support (8.6%) with the remaining support categories ranging from 1.3% to 2.6%. Social support was present in 88.8% of posts; predominantly emotional support (72.8%) followed by informational (36.2%) and esteem (30.2%) support. For a variety of reasons, we were unable to address the third question fully; we gave all members the option of contributing to the collaborative writing task and anticipated comparing those who accepted the invitation with those who did not. However, either participants continued to take part in the forum and contributed to the writing task, or they ceased to interact with the forum altogether, thereby limiting our ability to compare across time and task.ConclusionsFew members of the forum explicitly requested social support, but many offered it (emotional support was the most prevalent). There was evidence of both common-identity and common-bond community development from the outset. This continued to shape forum interactions throughout the 12 months of the study and set up a space that had an over-riding positive and supportive tone which enabled the members to reach out and offer support to similar others, in effect helping them to re-engage with the wider world. Future work that examines support across networked online communities is necessary.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

scholarly journals Lexical language-related episodes in pair and small group work

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria del Pilar Garcia Mayo ◽  
Nora Zeitler
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Group Work ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Small Group Work ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Writing Task

<p>The present study investigates whether learner set up in interaction, namely in pairs or small groups, influences the frequency and outcome of lexical language-related episodes (LREs) and L2 vocabulary learning. Thirty Spanish English as a foreign language (EFL) university learners took part in the study. They worked in four groups and seven pairs on the same collaborative writing task. Research was carried out on the course of five weeks as a pre- and post- vocabulary task and an individual writing task were administered to assess vocabulary learning and retention. The quantitative analysis of the data showed that there was no significant difference between the performance of pairs and groups, although the latter produced slightly more lexical LREs than pairs and were able to solve most of them correctly. However, from a qualitative point of view, the findings suggest that small group work leads to slightly better results than pair work as the different members obtain benefits from their peers’ linguistic knowledge.</p>

scholarly journals An Investigation of Information Sought by Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients on Online Peer-Support Groups

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1773-1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Scharett ◽  
Snehal Lopes ◽  
Hunter Rogers ◽  
Ayush Bhargava1 ◽  
Amal Ponathil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Word Count ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Professional Assistance ◽  
Classification Tool

Alzheimer’s caregivers seek social support through online communities to deal with their issues. The research team conducted a content analysis of ALZConnected.org to investigate the characteristics of information searched by caregivers and responses received. Two-hundred fifty posts and related responses were randomly selected and analyzed using a classification tool derived from the analysis of 500 posts and related responses spanning a yearlong period. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIW C) generated an average tone rating of 25.94 for the posts and 52.69 for the responses. The findings highlighted the caregiver’s need for emotional support (59.6%), and confusion about Alzheimer’s symptoms (12%). Most responses suggested informational resources (40.16%) and advised to seek professional assistance (21.31%). One of the key needs identified to inform future design of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver Forum was a design sensitive to the capabilities of its elder user audience.

Conflict Avoidance in Old Age

GeroPsych ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia Oberhauser ◽  
Andreas B. Neubauer ◽  
Eva-Marie Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Conflict Avoidance ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Set Up

Abstract. Conflict avoidance increases across the adult lifespan. This cross-sectional study looks at conflict avoidance as part of a mechanism to regulate belongingness needs ( Sheldon, 2011 ). We assumed that older adults perceive more threats to their belongingness when they contemplate their future, and that they preventively react with avoidance coping. We set up a model predicting conflict avoidance that included perceptions of future nonbelonging, termed anticipated loneliness, and other predictors including sociodemographics, indicators of subjective well-being and perceived social support (N = 331, aged 40–87). Anticipated loneliness predicted conflict avoidance above all other predictors and partially mediated the age-association of conflict avoidance. Results suggest that belongingness regulation accounts may deepen our understanding of conflict avoidance in the second half of life.

Privacy Concern of Health Information Disclosure in mHealth: The Moderate Effect of Social Support (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Dang ◽  
Shanshan Guo ◽  
Xitong Guo
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Privacy Concern ◽  
Informational Support ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Information Sensitivity ◽  
Moderate Effect

BACKGROUND The mobile health (mHealth) provides a new opportunity for patients’ disease prediction and health self-management. At the same time, privacy problems in mHealth have brought forth significant attention concerning patients' online health information disclosure and hindered mHealth development. OBJECTIVE Privacy calculus theory (PCT) has been widely used to understand personal information disclosure behaviors with the basic assumption of a national and linear decision-making process. However, people’s cognitive behavior processes are complex and mutual. In attempting to close this knowledge gap, we further optimize the information disclosure model of patients based on PCT by identifying the mutual relationship between costs (privacy concerns) and benefits. Social support, which has been proved to be a distinct and significant disclosure benefit of mHealth, was chosen to be the representative benefit of information disclosure in mHealth. METHODS From an individual perspective, a structural equation model with privacy concerns, health information disclosure intention in mHealth, and social support from mHealth has been examined. RESULTS 253 randomly selected participants provided validated questionnaire. The result indicated that perceived health information sensitivity positively enhances the privacy concern (0.505, p<0.01), and higher privacy concern levels will decrease the health information disclosure intention (-0.338, p<0.01). Various aspects of individual characters influence perceived health information sensitivity in different ways. The informational support has a negatively moderate on reduce the positive effect between perceived health information sensitivity and privacy concerns (-0.171, p<0.1) and will decrease the negative effect between privacy concerns and health information disclosure intention(-0.105, p<0.1). However, emotional support has no directly moderate effect on both privacy concerns and health information disclosure intention. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that social support can be regarded as a disutility reducer, that is, on the one hand, it reduces the privacy concerns of patients; on the other hand, it also reduces the negative impact of privacy concerns on information disclosure intention. Moreover, the moderate effect of social support is partially supported. Informational support, one demission of social support, is significant, while the other demission, emotional support, is not significant in mHealth. Furthermore, the results are different among patients with different individual characteristics. This study also provides specific theoretical and practical implications to enhance the development of mHealth.

scholarly journals The Association of Sources of Support, Types of Support and Satisfaction with Support Received on Perceived Stress and Quality of Life of Cancer Patients

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 153473542199490
Author(s):  
Iván Ruiz-Rodríguez ◽  
Isabel Hombrados-Mendieta ◽  
Anabel Melguizo-Garín ◽  
Mª José Martos-Méndez
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Informational Support ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
The Family

Introduction: The aim of the present study is to carry out a multidimensional analysis of the relationship of social support with quality of life and the stress perceived by cancer patients. Methods: The participants were 200 patients with cancer. Data was gathered on sociodemographic characteristics, health, quality of life, social support and perceived stress. Results: Frequency of and satisfaction with different sources and types of support are related positively with improvement of quality of life and negatively with perceived stress. The emotional support from the partner and the emotional and informational support from the family are significant predictors of quality of life. Emotional support from the family reduces patients’ perceived stress. Satisfaction with emotional support from the partner and with the informational support from friends and family increases quality of life. Satisfaction with emotional support from the family and with informational support from friends decreases patients’ perceived stress. Instrumental support and support provided by health professionals are not good predictors of quality of life and perceived stress. Satisfaction with the support received is more significantly related with quality of life and stress than the frequency with which the sources provide support. Conclusions: These results have important practical implications to improve cancer patients’ quality of life and reduce their perceived stress through social support. Designing intervention strategies to improve satisfaction with the support provided to patients by their closest networks results in a global benefit for the patient’s quality of life.

scholarly journals Biosociality in Online Interactions: Youths’ Positioning of the Highly Sensitive Person Category

Young ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 110330882110158
Author(s):  
Fanny Edenroth-Cato ◽  
Björn Sjöblom
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Discursive Psychology ◽  
Online Forum ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Structuralist Theory ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Sensitive Person

This article examines how young people in a Swedish online forum and in blogs engage in discussions of one popularized psychological personality trait, the highly sensitive person (HSP), and how they draw on different positionings in discursive struggles around this category. The material is analysed with concepts from discursive psychology and post-structuralist theory in order to investigate youths’ interactions. The first is a nuanced positioning, from which youths disclose the weaknesses and strengths of being highly sensitive. Some youths become deeply invested in this kind of positioning, hence forming a HSP subjectivity. This can be opposed using contrasting positionings, which objects to norms of biosociality connected to the HSP. Lastly, there are rather distanced and investigative approaches to the HSP category. We conclude that while young people are negotiating the HSP category, they are establishing an epistemological community.

scholarly journals Social support, adherence to Mediterranean diet and physical activity in adults: results from a community-based cross-sectional study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elpiniki Laiou ◽  
Iro Rapti ◽  
Georgios Markozannes ◽  
Luisella Cianferotti ◽  
Lena Fleig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Mediterranean Diet ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Network Support ◽  
Diet And Physical Activity ◽  
Social Network Support

Abstract There is a growing recognition that social support can potentially exert consistent or opposing effects in influencing health behaviours. The present paper presents a cross-sectional study, including 2,064 adults from Italy, Spain and Greece, who were participants in a multi-centre randomised controlled trial (C4H study), aiming to examine whether social support is correlated with adherence to a healthy Mediterranean diet and physical activity. Social support data were available for 1,572 participants. The majority of the sample reported emotional support availability (84·5 %), financial support availability (72·6 %) and having one or more close friends (78·2 %). Mediterranean diet adherence was significantly associated with emotional support (P = 0·009) and social network support (P = 0·021). No statistically significant associations were found between participant physical activity and the social support aspects studied. In conclusion, emotional and social network support may be associated with increased adherence to the Mediterranean diet. However, further research is needed to evaluate the role of social support in adherence to healthy Mediterranean diet.

What You Say and Where You Say It Matter: Effects of Facebook Message Publicity and Support Type on Evaluation of Support Message Quality

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110073
Author(s):  
Yining Malloch ◽  
Bo Feng
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Communication Channel ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Message Type ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Tangible Support ◽  
The Impact

Guided by the masspersonal communication model, this study examined the impact of the communication channel (masspersonal vs. interpersonal) and support message type on evaluation of social support message quality in Facebook settings. An online factorial experiment with 480 participants revealed that support messages sent through interpersonal channels (e.g., private messaging) were perceived as higher in quality than those sent through masspersonal channels (e.g., status update). Regardless of channels, participants considered tangible support messages as higher quality than informational and emotional support messages. Implications for computer-mediated communication and social support theories and practices were discussed.

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