Empowering or Disempowering? Online Support Among Seafarer-Partners

Past research in sociology and social psychology has revealed two aspects of online support. This mutual support among members of online support groups brings about empowerment as well as produces common values. The interaction between the two, however, has not been explicitly explored. This paper fills in this gap by examining the activities of a group of seafarer-partners in an online support group. It shows that common beliefs and values in groups can make online support, which is supposed to be empowering, serve disempowering purposes. This suggests that online support can produce a tension between empowerment and disempowerment. The finding leads to the conclusion that group values condition the empowerment potential of online support.Cyberspace, Empowerment, Gender, Relationships, Seafaring, Support Groups, Values

Virtual Online Communities as Powerful Secondary Groups in Multiple Social Contexts

Online and offline discussion groups can be quite different with regard to the composition and personality characteristics of their members, the goals of the group and the context in which they exist. Multiple dynamics likely affect and influence the structure and performance of any given group.  Most of these dynamics can potentially affect the group, regardless of the domain, virtual or face-to-face, and generate similar result.   There are qualities of online communication settings and qualities of face-to-face settings that can uniquely influence the dynamics of a group in those respective settings. This study explores the functioning of virtual online groups and examines potentially influential factors for the workings of groups of various types. Keywords: Virtual groups, Group Dynamics, Online communication, New Medi

Why People Trust in Online Health Communities: An Integrated Approach

People are increasingly using the Internet as a major source of health-related information. Online health communities are interesting in this regard, because they are an important source of information, but also appear to serve an emotional support role in connecting people who have similar conditions or can otherwise empathize with each others’ experiences. Trust is critical to the continued operation of these forums, because each support consumer is typically identified only by a pseudonym, important personal information is often revealed, and the consequences of acting on incorrect advice can be severe. Therefore, studies of established communities indicate that a significant level of trust develops between people in these forums. How this trust develops, however, has not been explained adequately in past research. In this conceptual paper, we propose a trust formation model that explains how trust is built in a non-commercial context where emotional bonding may play a large role

The Role of Emotional Expression in Accessing Social Networks: The Case of Newcomers\u27 Blogs

Research has established the critical role of social networks in facilitating adjustment to foreign environments. Increasingly, social interactions are happening through computer mediated technology. This paper explores the role of emotional expression in newcomers’ blogs in developing and interacting with social networks in a new country. This research uses a dictionary-based text analytics approach to detect emotional expression in newcomers’ blog posts and their associated discussions. Blog posts with more emotional expression had more associated responses; discussions tended to be more positive than posts; and the relative amount of negative emotion in the discussions increases as posts become more negative. Results suggest that expression of emotion in blogs can facilitate access to social networks and increase engagement in online communities by increasing the amount of responses and triggering congruent emotional response from blog readers, which is a precursor to affiliation and understanding. The findings in this paper highlight the role of emotional expression in blog posts and discussions, and its connection to developing social networks and engaging in online communities which has the potential to facilitate access to social support

Let's talk about sex:An interactional perspective on sexual health communication in oncology

An individual's intimate and sexual life can be significantly impacted by cancer and its treatments. It is crucial for people with cancer to be able to talk about their sexual concerns with their medical professional at every point throughout their disease trajectory. However, for both cancer patients and oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs), talking about sexuality can be challenging. This thesis therefore investigates how sexuality is actually discussed in online (online health forums) and offline (medical consultations) interactions. By using Discursive Psychology to analyse these naturally occurring interactions, this thesis aimed to uncover what participants in interaction achieve socially in and through talk about sexuality. First, we systematically reviewed studies analysing audio and/or video recordings of medical consultations about sexual health, leading to the identification of seven communication practices used by HCPs and patients. Both these findings and the analysis of oncological consultations presented in chapter 4, indicate that there is a delicacy associated with talking about sexuality. This thesis additionally sheds light on the ways in which oncology HCPs and people with cancer anticipate interactional concerns (i.e., subtle interactional sensitivities that participants in interaction anticipate or manage) and orient towards sexual normativities in their talk. Three studies in this thesis collectively provide the basis for the development of a training programme aimed at empowering oncology HCPs in interacting about sexuality. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to enhancing sexual health communication in oncology, advocating for open and non-judgmental discussions about sexuality to support patients in dealing with sexual issues related to cancer

Let's talk about sex:An interactional perspective on sexual health communication in oncology

An individual's intimate and sexual life can be significantly impacted by cancer and its treatments. It is crucial for people with cancer to be able to talk about their sexual concerns with their medical professional at every point throughout their disease trajectory. However, for both cancer patients and oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs), talking about sexuality can be challenging. This thesis therefore investigates how sexuality is actually discussed in online (online health forums) and offline (medical consultations) interactions. By using Discursive Psychology to analyse these naturally occurring interactions, this thesis aimed to uncover what participants in interaction achieve socially in and through talk about sexuality. First, we systematically reviewed studies analysing audio and/or video recordings of medical consultations about sexual health, leading to the identification of seven communication practices used by HCPs and patients. Both these findings and the analysis of oncological consultations presented in chapter 4, indicate that there is a delicacy associated with talking about sexuality. This thesis additionally sheds light on the ways in which oncology HCPs and people with cancer anticipate interactional concerns (i.e., subtle interactional sensitivities that participants in interaction anticipate or manage) and orient towards sexual normativities in their talk. Three studies in this thesis collectively provide the basis for the development of a training programme aimed at empowering oncology HCPs in interacting about sexuality. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to enhancing sexual health communication in oncology, advocating for open and non-judgmental discussions about sexuality to support patients in dealing with sexual issues related to cancer

Not Just for Support: Companionship Activities in Healthcare Virtual Support Communities

The phenomenon of social support―aid and assistance exchanged through social relationships and interpersonal transactions―has been studied extensively for decades. In the context of healthcare virtual support communities, researchers have focused on exploring community members’ support behavior and its effects on individuals’ health outcomes. This emphasis, however, has led to the neglect of another type of social interaction that also promotes individual health―companionship activities. We argue that in order to gain a deeper insight into the online support phenomenon, the consideration of companionship activities, in addition to social support exchange, is necessary. To bridge this gap in the literature, this article attempts to contrast community members’ support behavior and companionship activities in two large healthcare virtual support communities―one for patients with breast cancer and the other for patients with prostate cancer. Based on the identification of the two types of social activities from the two cancer support communities, the relationship between individuals’ participation in these activities, and gender differences in their activity engagement are also hypothesized and tested. Our goal is to advance the understanding of online socio-behavioral dynamics of virtual support communities. We also wish to provide insights into the design of such communities and the delivery of patient-focused healthcare interventions

Socialization or Social Isolation? Mental Health Community Support in the Digital Age

This research project specifically examines the experience of online community support groups as reported by users. The project began out of concern that healthcare providers in the Global North are directing people with mental health problems to online services, without seemingly understanding the impact that this may have on the individuals. The research findings will be of particular interest to mental health practitioners and service providers in the UK and elsewhere in the Global North, and aims to influence decisions made for policies around developing new online mental health services

Evaluating Use of an Online Intervention for Cancer Patients with Distress

Internet-based interventions have been effective in improving cancer survivors\u27 psychosocial functioning. However, low levels of engagement in these interventions have been common. A qualitative interview study was conducted to assess cancer survivors\u27 needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 25 cancer survivors who were minimally engaged (i.e. spent around 1 hour total on website) with the online intervention created by Owen and colleagues. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. Twenty themes were identified from the individual interviews. With an average Kappa in the near perfect range (Kappa= 0.89), the obtained codes were deemed a valid representation of the data. The most common themes included the desire to make connections with other survivors (i.e. sharing, belonging to a group), the structure of the intervention (i.e. ease of use, organization), personal relevance (i.e. perceiving website as a fit, having a need for the website), information provided (i.e. general resources, medical expertise), and the individual\u27s cancer trajectory (i.e. interacting with others with the same cancer type). The data indicate that cancer survivors have diverse needs and preferences. Flexibility should become the gold standard, where interventions could aim to tailor the website based on key variables. For example, a survivor could choose the type of information they would like to receive, the type of survivors they would like to interact with, and the topics of conversation applicable to their experience. The current study serves as a starting point for future research to identify and evaluate individual preferences on engagement. Understanding the needs of cancer survivors and implementing interventions that take into account these needs holds promise for increasing engagement and thus improving outcomes