Online Depression Communities: Members' Interests and Perceived Benefits

Abstract

Most previous studies on online communities (peer-to-peer support groups) dedicated to people with depression related to members as a homogeneous group, and none examined differences between segments based on psychographic measures. Such segmentation may be most helpful in understanding members' participation patterns and explaining the benefits members gain from participation. This study aimed to explore whether members of online depression communities vary in their interests in issues discussed in the communities, and if so, whether groups with different interests also differ with regard to the benefits gained from participation. The study was based on an online survey of 793 members of 16 online depression communities. Results identified four member groups: concerned about daily living, information seekers, interested in all topics, and relatively less involved. There were very few differences between the groups in background characteristics, participation patterns, and level of depression. However, results indicated significant differences between the groups in perceived benefits, as the interested in all topics reported more “online support” and “offline improvement” than the information seekers and the relatively less involved, and more “offline improvement” than the concerned about daily living. Assuming that the reported interests reflected actual involvement in discussions of different issues, the findings suggest that combining supportive and informative discussions is more beneficial than attending to only one type of discussion, and stress the importance of informative discussions.

Acknowledgments

Galit Nimrod, PhD, Fulbright scholar, is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies and a research fellow at the Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Aging at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. This study was supported by a grant from NARSAD, The Mental Health Research Association. The author thanks research assistant Shirley Dorchin for help in preparing this article. In addition, the author thanks the administrators of the following communities for their collaboration: Beyond Blue, Depression Forums, Depression Haven, Depression Tribe, Depression Fallout, Psychlinks, Psych Forums, Talk Depression, UKDF, Walkers in Darkness, and Wing of Madness.