![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
Abstract
Research on social support during the past two decades has been marked by a growth in scholarship examining supportive communication in computer-mediated contexts among individuals coping with illness. In an effort to summarize and advance this body of research, a meta-analytic review of content analyses was conducted. Across the 41 content analyses examining social support messages shared in health-related contexts online, informational and emotional support messages were most prevalent. Additionally, the prevalence of particular types of support messages varied based on several stressor dimensions relevant to illness. Nurturant forms of support were more common among content analyses examining health conditions likely to threaten personal relationships as well as among content analyses focusing on health conditions with a greater potential for loss in the form of death. Action-facilitating types of support were more common among content analyses examining more chronic conditions. The findings from this project offer insights about the nuanced ways in which computer-mediated communication is used as a resource for coping with illness.
Keywords:
The authors thank Professor Floyd and the three anonymous reviewers for their feedback as well as Jake Harwood and Jennifer Stevens Aubrey for their insights regarding the procedures used for data analysis.
The authors thank Professor Floyd and the three anonymous reviewers for their feedback as well as Jake Harwood and Jennifer Stevens Aubrey for their insights regarding the procedures used for data analysis.
Notes
[1] To illustrate the standardization procedure, consider Braithwaite and colleagues’ (Citation1999) content analysis, which was previously discussed. They reported the following raw number of messages in each category: informational support (n = 461), emotional support (n = 590), tangible support (n = 41), esteem support (n = 275), network support (n = 105). Because they used all five categories, the proportion of messages expected by chance in each category would be .20. The proportion of messages observed in each category was computed, and then the proportion expected by chance was subtracted from this value. The standardized proportion of messages within each category for Braithwaite and colleagues’ study were as follows: informational support (.11), emotional support (.20), tangible support (–.17), esteem support (–.01), and network support (–.13).