scholarly journals When Social Support Fits into your Luggage: Online Support Seeking and its Effects on the Traditional Study Abroad Experience

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Mikal
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Acculturative Stress ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Communication Barriers ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Support Seeking

In a study abroad context, the maintenance of dual on and offline personas provides students with the opportunity to demolish communication barriers with the home culture created by geographic distance. Conversely, online communication may help bring down communication barriers created by linguistic and cultural differences, providing students with exciting opportunities for face-to-face social interaction with host nationals. Yet, very little is known about how students are using the Internet in the development or maintenance of social support networks during study abroad. The goal of the present research project is to understand how Internet-mediated support complements, supplements or supplants traditional support seeking and how online support seeking leads to changes in the traditional study abroad experience. In this article,  I will present relevant literature on the subjects of acculturative stress, social coping, and Internet-mediated social support in order to ground the research question and study findings.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Communication Interchange of Individuals With Disabilities Utilizing Facebook, Discussion Forums, and Chat Rooms: Qualitative Content Analysis of Online Disabilities Support Groups (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichole E Stetten ◽  
Kelsea LeBeau ◽  
Maria A Aguirre ◽  
Alexis B Vogt ◽  
Jazmine R Quintana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Community Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Chat Rooms ◽  
Persons With Disabilities

BACKGROUND Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States are currently living with a form of disability. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act has published guidelines to help make developing technology and social networking sites (SNS) more accessible and user-friendly to people with a range of disabilities, persons with disabilities, on average, have less access to the internet than the general population. The quality, content, and medium vary from site to site and have been greatly understudied. Due to this, it is still unclear how persons with disabilities utilize various platforms of online communication for support. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore and compare the interactions and connections among online support groups across Facebook, discussion forums, and chat rooms to better understand how persons with disabilities were utilizing different SNS to facilitate communication interchange, disseminate information, and foster community support. METHODS Facebook groups, discussion forums, and chat rooms were chosen based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Data collected included content posted on Facebook groups, forums, and chat rooms as well as the interactions among group members. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the constant comparative method. RESULTS A total of 133 Facebook posts, 116 forum posts, and 60 hours of chat room discussions were collected and analyzed. In addition, 4 themes were identified for Facebook posts, 3 for discussion forums, and 3 for chat rooms. Persons with disabilities utilized discussion forums and chat rooms in similar ways, but their interactions on Facebook differed in comparison. They seem to interact on a platform based on the specific functions it offers. CONCLUSIONS Interactions on each of the platforms displayed elements of the 4 types of social support, indicating the ability for social support to be facilitated among SNS; however, the type of social support varied by platform. Findings demonstrate that online support platforms serve specific purposes that may not be interchangeable. Through participation on different platforms, persons with disabilities are able to provide and receive social support in various ways, without the barriers and constraints often experienced by this population.

Emotional Disclosures and Reciprocal Support over the Largest Parenting Forum on Reddit: Using Data Mining to Examine the Effect of Account Type and Anonymity on Supportive Communication (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supreet Mann ◽  
Michael C Carter
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Depressive Symptomatology ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Interpersonal Processes ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Parenting Support ◽  
Support Seeking ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

BACKGROUND Online support forums allow users to seek advice, information, and emotional support on a variety of issues. Today’s parents navigate unique stressors both off- and on-line, and online forums can provide parents with the social support they need to address contemporary parenting issues. Increased social support can have a positive effect on mental health, including decreasing depressive symptomatology and acting as a buffer to stress. Online support forums may provide parents with increased anonymity to discuss sensitive topics and may provide minority parents with a larger social network for advice seeking. It is, therefore, critical that we examine online support forums to better understand the role that social support might play in these spaces and the way parent posts may influence response. OBJECTIVE Research examining social support processes in parenting forums is lacking. This study examines the interpersonal support process within the largest Reddit parenting forum, r/Parenting, to understand how anonymity plays a role in emotional self-disclosure of the parent-poster and subsequent commenter support. METHODS Comments and posts made to r/Parenting were collected using Reddit’s API in February of 2020 with a final sample of 118,277 posts and 697,095 comments. RESULTS Results suggest the use of throwaway accounts is an important factor in the way emotional self-disclosure occurs both in posts and comments. Our data evidenced that in an online forum for parents to seek advice, information, and support, the use of throwaway accounts was found to be an important factor in the degree of ESD included in both posts and comments. Additionally, there was a direct and positive relationship between the ESD of posts and ESD of comments. CONCLUSIONS This suggests that in contemporary society, online spaces may offer parents increased anonymity and greater affordances when it comes to connecting with others, and thus operate as critical venues for social support. We evidenced that one feature that affords users with a greater degree of anonymity online (i.e., pseudonyms) serve as critical component in online support seeking among parents, impacting both the process of support seeking and reception of social support over one of the most popular parenting support forums online, r/Parenting. This signals an evolution in the way’s parents seek social support from others. This paves the way for further research examining interpersonal processes and the impact online support has on family communication through parent support.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Communication Interchange of Individuals With Disabilities Utilizing Facebook, Discussion Forums, and Chat Rooms: Qualitative Content Analysis of Online Disabilities Support Groups

10.2196/12667 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. e12667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichole E Stetten ◽  
Kelsea LeBeau ◽  
Maria A Aguirre ◽  
Alexis B Vogt ◽  
Jazmine R Quintana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Community Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Chat Rooms ◽  
Persons With Disabilities

Background Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States are currently living with a form of disability. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act has published guidelines to help make developing technology and social networking sites (SNS) more accessible and user-friendly to people with a range of disabilities, persons with disabilities, on average, have less access to the internet than the general population. The quality, content, and medium vary from site to site and have been greatly understudied. Due to this, it is still unclear how persons with disabilities utilize various platforms of online communication for support. Objective The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore and compare the interactions and connections among online support groups across Facebook, discussion forums, and chat rooms to better understand how persons with disabilities were utilizing different SNS to facilitate communication interchange, disseminate information, and foster community support. Methods Facebook groups, discussion forums, and chat rooms were chosen based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Data collected included content posted on Facebook groups, forums, and chat rooms as well as the interactions among group members. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the constant comparative method. Results A total of 133 Facebook posts, 116 forum posts, and 60 hours of chat room discussions were collected and analyzed. In addition, 4 themes were identified for Facebook posts, 3 for discussion forums, and 3 for chat rooms. Persons with disabilities utilized discussion forums and chat rooms in similar ways, but their interactions on Facebook differed in comparison. They seem to interact on a platform based on the specific functions it offers. Conclusions Interactions on each of the platforms displayed elements of the 4 types of social support, indicating the ability for social support to be facilitated among SNS; however, the type of social support varied by platform. Findings demonstrate that online support platforms serve specific purposes that may not be interchangeable. Through participation on different platforms, persons with disabilities are able to provide and receive social support in various ways, without the barriers and constraints often experienced by this population.

scholarly journals Analysing people with head and neck cancers’ use of online support groups

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamar E. Algtewi ◽  
Janine Owens ◽  
Sarah R. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Head And Neck Cancer ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Neck Cancer ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Support Groups ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Support Seeking

Online support groups have become a familiar source of social support for people with a variety of health issues. To date, no research has investigated the use of such groups by people with head and neck cancer (H&N). The aim of this study was to assess the types of social support, both sought and offered, within online support groups (OSGs) for head and neck cancer. Data was collected from 18 OSGs and two coding schemes; the Social Support Behaviour Code and the scheme of Coursaris & Liu (2009), were used to analyse the content of support-seeking and support-offering messages. The results suggested that the most frequently offered types of social support by group members were informational (43.4%) and emotional (32.4%), followed by esteem (15.6%) and network support (6.1%), whereas little tangible assistance was offered (2.4%). The content of support-seeking messages included group members sharing personal experience (31.5%), with the most frequent sought support being informational support (25.5%). The OSGs can be advantageous to people with H&N cancer, especially for those with appearance or speech problems to mitigate their embarrassment and facilitate interaction with others. The present findings suggest that such OSGs can be promising sources of H&N cancer-related informational and emotional support for the recipients, whether they are patients, family members or carers.

Acculturative stress and life satisfaction of Chinese rural-to-urban migrants

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Dekuo Liang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Liying Xia ◽  
Dawei Xu
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Acculturative Stress ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Relationship

Little is known regarding the life satisfaction of rural-to-urban migrants in China. In this study we assessed whether self-esteem and perceived social support mediated the association between rural-to-urban migrants' acculturative stress and life satisfaction. We use convenience sampling to recruit 712 migrants who were employed at construction sites in Nanjing for the study. Results reveal that acculturative stress was negatively related to self-esteem, perceived social support, and life satisfaction; self-esteem was positively associated with perceived social support and life satisfaction; and perceived social support was a significant and positive predictor of life satisfaction. In addition, we found that self-esteem and perceived social support partially mediated the relationship between acculturative stress and life satisfaction. Our findings provide a better understanding of life satisfaction over the course of migration, and add to knowledge of psychological well-being and mental health among rural-to-urban migrants in China.

scholarly journals Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 3471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natuya Zhuori ◽  
Yu Cai ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Yu Cui ◽  
Minjuan Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Meta Regression ◽  
The Impact

As the trend of aging in rural China has intensified, research on the factors affecting the health of the elderly in rural areas has become a hot issue. However, the conclusions of existing studies are inconsistent and even contradictory, making it difficult to form constructive policies with practical value. To explore the reasons for the inconsistent conclusions drawn by relevant research, in this paper we constructed a meta-regression database based on 65 pieces of relevant literature published in the past 25 years. For more valid samples to reduce publication bias, we also set the statistical significance of social support to the health of the elderly in rural areas as a dependent variable. Finally, combined with multi-dimensional social support and its implications for the health of the elderly, meta-regression analysis was carried out on the results of 171 empirical studies. The results show that (1) subjective support rather than objective support can have a significant impact on the health of the elderly in rural areas, and there is no significant difference between other dimensions of social support and objective support; (2) the health status of the elderly in rural areas in samples involving western regions is more sensitive to social support than that in samples not involving the western regions; (3) among the elderly in rural areas, social support for the older male elderly is more likely to improve their health than that for the younger female elderly; and (4) besides this, both data sources and econometric models greatly affect the heterogeneity of the effect of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas, but neither the published year nor the journal is significant. Finally, relevant policies and follow-up studies on the impact of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas are discussed.

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