Peer appraisal, participatory surveillance, and experiential mentoring: explicating communicative practices of participatory learning in an online support group for people with binging experiences

Abstract

Much research has examined how participants in online support groups (OSGs) seek information or exchange social support while neglecting peer learning among users. Applying the perspective of community of practice (CoP), we conceptualize peer communications in OSGs as a participatory learning process of sharing and managing experiential knowledge. To explicate this learning process, we thematically analyzed 1,084 discussion threads in an anonymous Chinese OSG formed around binge eating. Our findings identified three informal strategies of participatory learning: (a) peer appraisal to validate shared suffering, (b) participatory surveillance to monitor peer progress, and (c) experiential mentoring to corroborate coping practices. This study elucidates the process by which OSGs generate, validate, and consolidate experiential knowledge through peer communication practices. It highlights the collaborative nature of knowledge construction within OSGs, in which members engage in bottom-up, trial-and-error approaches supported by their own experiential self-disclosures. Such a CoP allows participants to explore and test various coping strategies, fostering a participatory learning environment in which they can solicit or provide feedback based on their experiences.

Keywords:

• Online support groups
• collective coping
• community of practice
• experiential knowledge
• peer learning
• binge eating

Introduction

With features such as accessibility and anonymity, online support groups (OSGs) are a major channel to which people turn for information, advice, and support when faced with health disruptions. While prior research has highlighted the promise of OSGs in facilitating health information-seeking and support exchange (e.g. Eichhorn, 2008; Kim & Lee, 2014), much research has tended to approach the use of OSGs from either an individualist information-seeking perspective or a transactional give-and-take approach to support such exchanges. However, this research has neglected users’ agency in gathering and corroborating health-related information, as well as their collective actions in seeking, sharing, and cross-checking information within OSGs.

Moving beyond a support-centric and transactional view of communicative practices in OSGs, this study examines communication in OSGs as a form of social learning. We draw on the perspectives of communities of practice (CoPs) (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and experiential knowledge (Borkman, 1976) to conceptualize knowledge construction in OSGs and scrutinize the communicative strategies used by group participants at different coping stages. Building on the CoP perspective, this study unpacks the collaborative dynamics of OSGs and illustrates how certain communicative practices in OSGs constitute “thinking together” (Pyrko et al., 2017)—a communal mechanism of information sharing and knowledge management based on peer engagement and mutual understanding.

Online coping as a social learning experience

Needs for coping emerge when the sufferer’s ability to live a good life is hindered by disruptive health conditions. A typical coping process consists of two phases: appraisal of situations and actual coping actions (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Observing the advent of disruptive health conditions, individuals first need to appraise and evaluate whether they are able to gather enough resources to solve the pressing problem (Lazarus, 1993). OSGs play an important role in facilitating health information seeking (Kim & Lee, 2014) and are particularly useful to people with socially stigmatized illnesses. Affording synchronous interactivity with anonymity, OSGs serve as spaces for such people to share personal experiences and seek support from others (Yeo & Chu, 2017).

Extant research on OSGs tends to employ a social support perspective, typically scrutinizing online discussions about different health problems and categorizing them by the kind of support involved (e.g. Atwood et al., 2018; Eichhorn, 2008; Reifegerste et al., 2017). While providing significant insights into OSG communication, we consider this approach insufficient in two aspects. First, it does not sufficiently attend to how internet users transform online information into personal knowledge. Social media users join OSGs to seek information about health problems and to evaluate their own situations. In this process, users do not blindly absorb every item of information they encounter. Rather, they are likely to use different means to validate online information and construct their own knowledge structures about the illness. Second, extant studies of OSGs often consider online supportive communication as strategic, give-and-take processes. In fact, participation in OSGs entails continuous communication and negotiation. Through interactions with people who have had similar experiences, OSG participants learn from others’ experiences and adjust their own coping strategies accordingly (Kingod, 2020).

Conceptualizing OSGs as communities of practice

Proposed by Lave and Wenger (1991), a community of practice refers to a group of people who share a common concern, problem, or interest, coming together to share best practices and create new knowledge on the subject in common. OSGs and CoPs share many similarities in formation and organizational structures. For instance, OSGs are typically formed around shared health concerns; participants engage with each other in OSGs to share personal experiences and more effectively tackle problems (Banerjee et al., 2018; Reifegerste et al., 2017). Furthermore, OSGs enable expanded communicative actions oriented toward problem solving and the sharing of personal experiences (Kim & Lee, 2014). These features are congruent with conceptualizations of CoPs as informal learning hubs formed around shared interests (Jewson, 2007) and practice-based learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Knowledge construction in CoPs is informal and social, constituted by continuous sharing and negotiations among communal members, whereby effective workarounds become validated and accepted as “best practices” (Fuller, 2007; Gandolfi et al., 2023).

CoP research has emphasized the importance of communicative and organizational strategies in facilitating the establishment of CoPs and effective peer learning. Pyrko et al. (2017) identified the process of “thinking together” as an essential element of meaningful CoPs. Knowledge sharing happens when people with shared interests “manage to find ways to meaningfully attend to the same problem” and “guide one another through their understanding of [it]” (Pyrko et al., 2017, pp. 393–394). Beyond mere information exchange, learning in CoPs encompasses a series of intensive communicative activities that promote mutual understanding and collaboration among members in the construction of experiential knowledge (Iverson & Mcphee, 2002; Pyrko et al., 2017).

Key to our framework of social learning in health-related CoPs is the concept of experiential knowledge (Borkman, 1976; Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023). This refers to a form of lay understanding that is “learned from personal experience” rather than “acquired by discursive reasoning, observation, or reflection on information provided by others” (Borkman, 1976, p. 446). In contrast to expert knowledge provided by doctors and other health professionals, experiential knowledge is derived from context-specific personal experiences (Tian & Zhang, 2022) and shaped by social interactions and discourses (Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023). While early studies of experiential knowledge viewed it as an alternative way of knowing to medical consultation, recent research rejects this dichotomy and instead highlights how laypeople synthesize experiential and professional knowledge when coping with health problems (Pols, 2014; Tian & Zhang, 2022). For example, young mothers in Hong Kong would utilize context-based child-rearing experiences and lay knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine when tackling ailments and continuing symptoms after prescribed treatments (Tian & Zhang, 2022).

Scholars have identified two interconnected functions of personal stories in the construction of experiential knowledge. The sharing of personal experiences with the aim of getting well constitutes an “epistemic project” that seeks to generate and make heard the lay knowledge acquired in the process of curing the symptoms (Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023; Kingod, 2020). It also facilitates a social and affective process among vulnerable women that some scholars conceptualize as “feminist consciousness-raising” (Dubriwny, 2013; Murphy, 2004). By implicitly resolving the question “Is it just me or am I not alone?”, the co-presence of people with rare symptoms or a socially stigmatized illness externalizes “problems previously felt to reside in oneself” (Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023, p. 1,492), reducing the feelings of social isolation of the sufferer (Kotliar, 2016; Ozawa-de Silva, 2008). The popularity of social media has enabled more rigorous exchanges of personal health experiences through OSGs. Scholars have found that social media users make use of various digital affordances to facilitate different modes of engagement, evaluation, and learning and thereby become “expert patients” (Maslen & Lupton, 2019, p. 1,637).

Shared experiential knowledge, kept in groups or archived by summarizing posts, becomes part of the shared repertoire of epistemic resources and common workarounds of coping—a constitutive characteristic of CoPs (Fuller, 2007). Previous studies have also highlighted online communicative practices among people with health issues in creating shared meanings and interpretations of suffering. For example, Kotliar (2016) showed how people with depression utilize blogging as a “narrative sandbox” to reconstruct etiological explanations for their suffering and collaboratively search for coherence. Recent studies further illustrate the communicative practices in online communities for people with stigmatized health issues (e.g. depression, eating disorders) to collectively affirm their suffering (Yeo, 2021) and resist pathological public silencing (Dias, 2003).

However, despite the ostensibly overlapping scholarship on CoPs and support groups, little empirical research has explicitly linked OSGs and CoPs. Previous studies on CoPs tend to focus on practical, factual knowledge, especially work-related skills (e.g. Hutchins & Boyle, 2017; Schmitz Weiss & Domingo, 2010). One notable exception is a recent study of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) content on Tumblr, in which the authors conceptualize an imagined CoP connected by hashtags in which users participate in a collective quest for shared meanings and interpretations of NSSI experiences (Guccini & McKinley, 2022). The study exemplifies the underexamined experiential aspect of CoP, in which “practice” is less about specific practical skills and more about experiential knowledge of coping techniques. Nevertheless, the authors did not directly address the peer learning process or examine the role of communicative practices in the process.

Capitalizing on the conceptual connections between the CoP literature and OSG studies, we examined peer communication dynamics within a Chinese OSG dedicated to the issue of binge eating. Taking the perspective of experiential knowledge, the objective of this research was to scrutinize the nuanced communicative strategies employed by people with binging experiences (PWBEs). By delving into these strategies, the study aims to unveil the intricate processes through which PWBEs collectively construct experiential knowledge and navigate their eating challenges. It transcends conventional understandings of OSGs as conduits for aggregating social support resources, shedding light on the underlying impetus for knowledge cultivation within these communities.

Study background

This study examines peer communication related to binge eating on Baidu Tieba (百度贴吧)—a Chinese topic-based social media platform like Reddit. Binge eating refers to the excessive consumption of food within a short period of time and is commonly associated with eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Besides potential health risks, such as digestive diseases, obesity, and hypertension, PWBEs are prone to mental distress and unhealthy behaviors. For example, the fear of overeating and anxiety over body shape may prompt some PWBEs to take laxatives or purge after eating. Binge eating is associated with depression, anxiety disorder, and other mental health disruptions (Fairburn & Cooper, 1984). Over the years, studies have observed a disproportionate increase in the number of young adults who are experiencing binge eating or eating disorders, especially among women living in urban areas (Getz, 2014; Lee & Lee, 2000). Furthermore, people with eating disorders are often stigmatized in the media and in society as irrational and obsessive (Rich, 2006).

Since the 1990s, the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) in China has been on the rise, affecting as much as 7.04% of the population (Holmes & Ma, 2023), with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorders more prevalent than anorexia nervosa (Yao et al., 2021). The prevalence of EDs is highly gendered. While men could also be susceptible to problematic eating, studies have found that the East Asian cultural preference for “white, slim, and young” (白瘦幼)appearances engenders an environment in which women are under constant micro- and self-surveillance regarding weight and body shape (Holmes & Ma, 2023; Vu-Augier de Montgrémier et al., 2020). The modernization of China has given rise to new body ideals in popular conversations, but the influence of collectivism and Confucianism still plays a significant role in shaping the behaviors of young Chinese women (Holmes & Ma, 2023). Mental illnesses, such as eating disorders or depression, are typically regarded as face threats and failures in self-cultivation in the Chinese context, leading to social avoidance among people with problematic eating habits (Yang et al., 2013; Yang & Kleinman, 2008).

For people with EDs, OSGs provide nonjudgmental spaces and the development of empathetic networks, as well as respite from societal stigma. Established in December 2003, Baidu Tieba is one of the leading social networking sites in China (Statista, 2023). Because of its early founding, Baidu Tieba is most popular among millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996), with slightly more male (56%) than female users. On Baidu Tieba, users open various boards based on shared interests. Most boards are publicly accessible, such as the Binge Eating Board (暴食吧). At the time of data collection, the Binge Eating Board had more than 50,000 members and was one of the most active online communities formed around binge-eating issues in China. The site offers various formats of engagement that allow a certain level of flexibility in writing or responding to others’ posts. First, a user can initiate a new thread and write up to 15,000 characters in the opening post. Second, there are two ways to respond to a post: reply and comment. By replying, participants can write up to 750 Chinese characters, which appear in the main thread. Commenting is a shorter-form response that appears immediately after the original post or any replies. Comments can also be replied to. Consequently, small conversations can be conducted by continuously replying to comments while the thread discusses the major theme. This flexible writing format allows PWBEs on Baidu Tieba to initiate conversational threads with multiple interlocutors simultaneously and to expand small-group conversations for different communicative needs.

Method

Data

Data were collected on February 12, 2020. Using a Python web crawler, all available posts on the Binge Eating Board were collected. After removing posts with fewer than 15 Chinese characters (posts that are too short to be meaningful), the final dataset comprised 7,003 posts dated between 14 April 2017 and 12 February 2020. Posts created earlier than 14 April 2017 were archived by the platform and thus were not accessible. The whole dataset was categorized by the first author and an associate by the main concern (shape, weight, or eating, adapted from Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2019) expressed by the poster and the motivational stage for behavioral change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, and action/maintenance, adapted from Prochaska et al., 1992). Weight concern was the second-most-mentioned category (16.42%), following eating concern (24.13%). Previous studies on eating-disorder-related communication have discussed prevalent content, such as “thinspiration” (content that expresses aspirations to be thin, see Ging & Garvey, 2018) and risky eating habits (e.g. fasting and purging, see Borzekowski et al., 2010; Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2019; Dias, 2003), while the complex relationship between body weight and disordered eating was less examined. Given the large number of posts concerning body weight in our dataset, we decided to focus on weight-concerned discussions. Accordingly, all 1,084 posts (with attendant comments and replies) were selected for further analysis.

Analysis

The selected posts were analyzed using the reflexive thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2022), which focuses on exploring contextually situated experiences, perspectives, and behaviors—generating “themes” or patterns of meaning anchored by shared ideas or concepts, through systematic engagement with the dataset. Manual coding was aided by MAXQDA, a qualitative data analysis software that helps store qualitative data and keep coding records.

The first author began the analysis by systematically examining each post and its comments to identify the different communicative strategies used by PWBEs. During the initial reading, two types of communication stood out: food logs and emotional self-disclosures. The two authors then collaborated to closely examine all elements of the posts, including communication goals, interactive dynamics, and linguistic features. Upon close reading of the posts, a more crystalized interpretation emerged around the use of affective self-disclosure as a means of seeking support and inviting external surveillance through food logging. The authors also noted the presence of recovery question-and-answer (Q&A) posts, which were fewer in number but focused on communal reciprocity and peer learning. The collaborative nature of communication within the group became increasingly evident as PWBEs offered relevant personal experiences and guided each other toward developing a shared understanding of binge eating symptoms and coping strategies. The authors then reexamined all the posts, cross-checking the interpretation with other posts, and coding aspects related to knowledge and meaning construction (e.g. tactical suggestions, experiential comments, etc.). Codes were then organized into emergent themes that were further developed conceptually by theorizing the discursive actions of peer appraisal, participatory surveillance, and experiential mentoring. To protect the privacy of the posters, any identifying information was removed, and the extracted exemplars were paraphrased so that the posters could not be identified by referencing the original post.

Findings

Peer appraisal: validating shared suffering

Peer appraisal refers to the exchange of experiential information between participants to solicit or provide appraisals from others with similar experiences. In the context of binge eating, individuals often provide or seek appraisals from others who can relate to their struggles. Participants who are new to binge eating often initiate these discussions, with posts typically centered on affect-loaded personal narratives and focusing on concerns about weight gain and recurring symptoms. In response, veteran group members provide replies that serve as collective validation, affirming the “epistemic existence” of the shared suffering of binge eating (Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023). These replies not only reduce the uncertainty of new PWBEs, but also foster empathetic solidarity through mutual disclosures.

Linda, who had recently experienced her first episode of binge eating followed by purging, joined the group in search of support from others who had gone through similar struggles. In the discussion thread, Linda shared her journey, explaining how her binge eating symptoms developed after a year of dieting. Despite trying various methods to manage her weight, she found herself fluctuating and experiencing amenorrhea. During a dinner at the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, she had her first episode of binge eating, which was followed by purging. As Linda recounted her subsequent recurring binges, she expressed a profound sense of anxiety about her situation:

What’s wrong with me? Am I going to be like this forever? I am feeling really uncomfortable. I am afraid that I can’t resist the urge to purge.

By posting a selfie in which she perceived herself as ideally “thin,” Linda indirectly conveyed her worries about overeating and gaining weight, accompanied by a series of sad emojis. This prompted several users to relate to her story and respond in the thread with their own similar experiences:

I’ve been through all these … Craving for food every day. Looking at the weight that never gets down, wanted to eat but not daring to eat too much.

Commenters’ sharing of personal experiences connected Linda with the community, reassuring her of the collective suffering of binge eating. This virtual togetherness alleviated Linda’s uncertainty about her symptoms and helped her understand her situation. Commenters also provided explanations for Linda’s binging, emphasizing the link between excessive dieting and binge-eating behaviors:

Ally: This indicates that you owe too much to the body in losing weight …

Cathy: As a person who has been here … I have to tell you … the only way to jump out of the cycle is to temporarily give up weight control, eat regularly, and adjust your mindset.

Jean: The more you care about weight, the more annoyed you feel. Follow your own will to eat, and then add a little bit of control. You will be fine.

Despite the ongoing debate about the association between dieting and binge eating (c.f. Watson & Le Pelley, 2021), this connection becomes widely accepted within the group due to participants’ shared experiences of attempting weight control and restrictive dieting. Linda’s experience was not only explained by this shared knowledge, but further validated this association, reinforcing such epistemic recognition in the group. After reading the posts on the board, Linda found solidarity with others combating binge eating. This motivated her to document her own story in the group and find hope for the future.

While Linda sought help in a rather implicit manner by sharing her stories, some participants directly or even desperately asked for help from the group. Joyce, who was 15 years old on the post, loathed the fatigue after recurring binging episodes and the fluctuation of her body weight, which frayed her nerves:

I don’t want to be in this cycle anymore. It is really painful, but I can’t control myself … Who could teach me what to do? The new semester is starting in four days. I know I should focus on my studies, but I am occupied with my weight.

Joyce was hesitant to stop dieting, even though she recognized the link between a restrictive diet and binge eating. Her family neglected her worrisome situation and dismissed her obsession with her weight with hurtful comments, leaving Joyce feeling isolated. In search of support, Joyce turned to the internet for suggestions. Many responses expressed concern about Joyce’s relatively young age. When Joyce expressed dissatisfaction with her height (implicitly linking it to her weight), one participant reassured her that she would grow taller but only after eating enough food. Responses such as this addressed Joyce’s weight anxiety and provided situational appraisals of her specific circumstances, facilitating a more comprehensive evaluation.

The self-disclosures made on the board often revolve around confusion, fears, and the cyclical struggle between dieting and binge eating. As all the selected posts expressed weight concerns, it became evident that body dissatisfaction underlaid almost all the personal stories, particularly for participants in the early stages of binge eating. These self-disclosures served as a means to initiate the process of “peer appraisal.” The frequent use of interrogative sentences by the original poster indicated their novice status and the need for supportive conversations.

Analysis of the comments on these posts revealed three common components: 1) validation through personal experiences, 2) explanatory models, and 3) customized suggestions. The personal stories shared within the group were first validated by being similar to the experiences of other members, providing epistemic assurance of binge-eating symptoms, and creating a sense of empathetic solidarity in the sense of “you are not alone.” Through this process, the connection between dieting and binge eating emerged as prominent and credible knowledge within the group. Tentative explanations and customized suggestions were also offered based on experiential knowledge. By identifying shared problems and establishing mutual connections, the group began to “think together.” Affective personal stories were not only read, but also attended to, contributing to the formation of a CoP.

Participatory surveillance: monitoring peer progress

Participatory surveillance was a common activity whereby participants invited peer supervision of their progress in coping with binge eating in the form of detailed food logs. Peer monitoring is a common tactic used in self-help groups to facilitate better outcomes of behavioral change (Kelly et al., 2009). It invites participants with addictive behaviors to comprehensively recount and reflect on their day-to-day behaviors. Peer monitoring motivates a sense of participatory surveillance (Albrechtslund, 2008), in which participants are disciplined to learn the means to regulate themselves and share progress so that they can stay in abstinence (Anderson & Gilbert, 1989; Wilton & DeVerteuil, 2006).

In the context of the Binge Eating Board, numerous group members transform their personal journeys of recovering from binge eating into collective endeavors by regularly posting and updating their food logs. They invite others to interact and evaluate their daily food intake. These evaluations are based on the commenters’ individual experiences. Unlike traditional peer appraisal, in which knowledge is shared from experienced to less experienced members, food logging creates a platform for the negotiation of coping strategies and knowledge. While group members may not be medical experts in treating binge eating, a longstanding challenge is that people with eating disorders are often unwilling to receive professional treatment owing to skepticism and bad experiences with apathetic media staff members. The shared suffering among group members establishes common ground for participants to trust that their content will be viewed with empathy, thus encouraging members to open up and share. Food logs with constructive conversations serve as references for communal members to discover possible coping strategies, building a shared repertoire of coping knowledge.

In previous studies of OSGs, participants usually have a common goal of alleviating symptoms (e.g. Atwood et al., 2018; Kim & Lee, 2014) or establishing a credible understanding of the unacknowledged side effects of a specific treatment (Gunnarsson & Wemrell, 2023). However, on the Binge Eating Board, posts exhibit different coping goals that can be broadly categorized as weight control or recovery. These two categories reflect distinct coping orientations among individuals with problematic binge-eating behaviors, leading to the development of different streams of experiential knowledge construction.

Nina was a senior-year university student when she started her weight-control food log. She signaled her post with the commonly used term “recording post” (记录帖) in the title and updated it daily. At the beginning of food logs, posters typically include a resolution statement to introduce their current situation and set goals. Though stated in the title that the post is “a record for myself,” Nina wrote a self-introduction in the opening thread, indicating that she was well aware of potential readers:

I am sure that many people still know me, but there must be many newcomers who don’t know this old gal! Let me introduce myself again! I am a senior-year university student doing an internship, and I go back to the campus occasionally. Kind of like a part-time student! Also, graduating soon!

Apart from her self-introduction, she also explained why she wanted to record her dieting progress:

I feel that I would be fat as hell if I don’t record my diet … last time I was on a scale, I was already 60 kg … haven’t weighed or kept on a diet for a long time, perhaps I am heavier now … Sigh, this time, I created this post in hope of losing weight.

The lengthy introductory paragraphs highlight the participatory aspect of food logging within the group. It goes beyond being a personal resolution statement and clearly indicates the specific focus of one’s food logging, such as weight control, in Nina’s case. Nina actively engages with other participants by addressing potential questions about her background and the reasons for logging. Additionally, her resolution statement serves as an open invitation for others to join in monitoring her progress together.

The concept of participatory surveillance expands on the idea of panopticon surveillance, where individuals are rendered passive subjects of control by the potential of constant monitoring, to a mutual and empowering practice of peer monitoring by suggesting that social media allows users to have some control over the information they choose to share (Albrechtslund, 1969). The growing trend of self-tracking and sharing on social media is driven by users’ desire for communal bonding and digital collaboration in self-understanding (Lomborg & Frandsen, 2016; Lupton, 2018). In the Binge Eating Group, food logs typically include visual records of each meal, brief descriptions of the mental process while eating and occasionally the individual’s weight for the day. Unlike other forms of self-tracking, which may involve complex techniques or post-consumer modifications, these paper-and-pen-like food logs indicate that individuals with problematic binge eating behaviors focus more on self-understanding, with less emphasis on technical sophistication (Barta & Neff, 2016).

Self-tracking content was not only shared but peer evaluated: whether the amount of food intake was too much and how the diet had made the body weight go up or down. This is because Baidu Tieba, by default, sorts posts by the date of the latest updates. Food logs that are updated daily always appear at the top of the board. Other group members could “drop by” these food logs, greet the posters, or leave their opinions about the diet. This daily “check-in” activity provides a space for PWBEs to not only document their diet, but also to socialize with each other.

The food logs serve as a platform for open discussion, allowing anyone to leave comments and contribute to the collective thinking process. This approach highlights the learn-by-doing aspect of experiential knowledge, whereby comments were not viewed as professional advice, but rather as personal opinions based on individual (successful) experiences. Just as in peer appraisal posts, participants often shared personal stories about similar situations to establish the credibility of their peer advice.

In food logs that are recovery oriented, participants usually display a less restrictive attitude toward diet and greater tolerance toward overeating. Instead of tactical dieting suggestions, comments in recovery food logs focus more on psychological adjustments (e.g. redirecting, positive reinforcement, alternative conduits for emotional catharsis) that could be helpful for other participants to maintain positivity and persevere after relapses (e.g. “Keeping in shape healthily is a life-long project … It’s okay. Everything will work out in the end.”).

The subjective nature of the experiential knowledge shared within the community resulted in varying interpretations of concepts such as overeating, excessive dieting, slimness, and fat among group members. This lack of consistent standards sometimes led to conflicts among participants about the food logs. In a food log, Lily, a postgraduate student, expressed her frustration with commenters who suggested that she restrict her diet:

I don’t like some friends in this group. When they saw others talking about their binging experiences, they always wanted to point a finger at it. If the post mentioned dieting, they said you shouldn’t be dieting, you should eat as much as you wish, if you don’t do this you will binge; when others ate too much, they said dear, you shouldn’t do this, you should control yourself, this is bad for your body. Lol, aren’t these bullshit? If everybody has a normal diet, who wants to be in this group?

Although commenters offering suggestions for restrictions in Lily’s food log may have had good intentions to aid in her recovery, Lily challenged the legitimacy of these “expert participants” by pointing out that most group members lacked professional knowledge in treating eating disorders. Lily’s response implies that community members were conscious of the subjective nature of the experiential knowledge shared within the group, as well as the responsibility one should accept when considering and experimenting with suggestions from fellow participants.

In the studied community, food logging served as a platform for participatory learning, in which members shared and negotiated experiential knowledge. By documenting their self-tracking activities in diary form, participants invited others who were also struggling to monitor their progress in coping with their issues. The detailed food logs, accompanied by constructive conversations, provided valuable references for coping strategies and helped define different stages of weight loss or recovery, contributing to a shared repertoire of coping knowledge. Additionally, within the group, stories of extreme behaviors and subsequent binge eating symptoms circulated, eventually forming a group-wide prevailing explanation for binge eating: excessive dieting leading to binge eating. This explanation, in turn, emphasized the importance of monitoring and controlling the amount of food consumed, thereby legitimizing the popularity of collaborative food logs within the group.

Experiential mentoring: corroborating coping practices

“Ask me anything” (AMA) was a popular format of Q&A posts on the board, usually initiated by members who had not participated in compulsive eating for at least one year (self-reported) and were therefore deemed by the community as “recovered.” As such, AMA constitutes a form of experiential mentoring that directly transfers knowledge by sharing coping practices in a personalized way. The phrase “ask me anything” (你问我答), which often appeared in opening posts, not only indicates the post owners’ open attitudes toward upcoming questions, but also conveys a sense of reciprocity in that constructive conversations are sustained based on altruism. Learning in CoPs is a social practice in which people “learn through their co-participation in the shared practices of the ‘community’ or the ‘lived-in world’” (Fuller, 2007, p. 19).

One such AMA post was started in 2013 by Lisa, who began by describing how she developed bulimia nervosa at 19 and maintained an avoidant attitude toward her eating issue until she learned that one of her teachers from middle school had died from anorexia nervosa. Having spent seven years in the recovery process, she reported maintaining a stable diet for two years. In the thread of this post, Lisa received many supportive replies (e.g. “Support this post. Positive energy!”) and praise for her recovery. She commented on almost all replies in the first five pages, acknowledged the compliments (e.g. “Thank you for the support! I am with you!”) and encouraged the commenters to face up to binge eating and recover from it. Lisa’s recovery story was revealed in detail through a continuous flow of conversations. Subsequently, the AMA thread became an intimate space of supportive communication.

In addition, Lisa tried to answer various questions from members who were still struggling with binge eating. Her answers touched not only on ways to alleviate specific binge eating symptoms but also on the mentality of self-acceptance. In one reply, Echo, a board member, wrote that she was troubled by the feeling of getting fat after not having been on a diet for three days. Lisa attributed Echo’s feeling of the symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder:

This is because of body dysmorphic disorder. It is normal that you have cognitive dissonance now. Hang in there! Get over it. And then your body will get used to it. You can take selfies of your body on different days and compare them. You will find yourself not getting fat. It is just your feeling.

In this conversation, Lisa explained to the girl that her fear of getting fat was a form of “cognitive dissonance.” In her story, Lisa did not mention any professional treatment experiences, presenting herself as someone who recovered through self-help. However, her consistent use of psychological or biomedical terms suggested that she possessed a certain level of professional knowledge, which could be attributed to her postgraduate educational background. By providing a pathological explanatory device, Lisa attempted to normalize Echo’s feelings as a common occurrence in the process of recovering, meant to alleviate Echo’s guilty feelings after eating. Besides addressing Echo’s concern, Lisa also came up with a tip to help Echo overcome her fatphobic psychology (take photos and compare them). This conversation became a mini consultation between Lisa and Echo, with personalized suggestions to overcome binge eating and to provide useful advice to sufferers like Echo.

The public and continuous nature of AMA threads enabled questioners to update their recent progress/issue in the thread and receive timely help from recovered members. In several cases, AMA became a collective diary for community members to log their lives and feelings of confusion. Miu was a graduate student majoring in psychology and counseling. She first developed binge eating symptoms in high school and recovered three years before the post. However, she had relapsed in the past year and had worked very hard to overcome it. As a result, she decided to share her experiences on the discussion board to help others. Her warm and literary style of expression attracted some members to routinely visit her thread, sharing their progress and asking questions about recovery. Leaf was one of them. In one reply, she wrote about an unpleasant experience and asked Miu for help:

Miu ∼ I am sad … Today I was reorganizing my closet, and I found that none of my jeans from the past would fit … I am so regretful about my dumb weight-loss plan and the later binge eating! Would I be that slim again if I recover from binge eating? I know I shouldn’t expect it to be soon, but I miss my past self so much! Crying …

Miu replied to Leaf in a tender manner and redirected her to look into the future:

In the process of recovery, you would gain weight for a while. But since you would eat much less than when you binge, your body would go back to its most comfortable weight, and usually, this number is smaller than your weight when you’re binging. Though there are some people who couldn’t go back to their old weight, they would realize that no matter how much we weigh, we look the pretties when we’re mentally well. It is more important to enjoy your life than to fit into a pair of jeans!

Miu’s reply not only helped Leaf walk away from her moody, self-deprecating thoughts, but her suggestion also contributed to the record of coping that other group members could learn from by browsing the thread. Though Leaf’s confusion was based on a very personal event in her life, her feelings of regretting dieting, body dissatisfaction, and ambivalence toward recovery were common to PWBEs at various stages. It is common for people with eating disorders to display self-deprecating tendencies and feel guilty about gaining weight (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2019; Chu & Xiao, 2023). Miu gave her advice by suggesting that the weight gain is likely to be temporary. While some might fail to maintain an ideal weight, Miu redirected Leaf to envision a future with mental wellness: “to enjoy your life” rather than “fitting into a pair of jeans.” The legitimacy of Miu’s account was not just because of her semi-professional counseling background but stemmed more directly from her identity as a “recovered member” who had undergone what Leaf was experiencing. Her recovery status helped validate her advice.

Discussion

In this study, we examined how OSG participants exchanged experiential information related to binge-eating issues and their engagement in situational learning as a community of practice (CoP). As with Guccini and McKinley (2022), who analyzed an OSG centered on self-injury as an imagined CoP, we found peer communications around practice advice, collective coping mechanisms, and social support that may be “interpreted as forms of collective sense-making and communal care through consuming relatable content” (p. 7). The substantive contribution of our study is in conceptualizing and illustrating such peer communications as a participatory learning process of situated information sharing and knowledge management. Specifically, our study advances the extant research on OSGs in three ways. First, we identify the informal strategies of participatory learning that broaden the understanding of OSGs, extending attention beyond support exchange to include new insights into collective coping in digitally mediated contexts. Our findings demonstrate an interactive, situated, on-the-fly peer learning process that comprises three informal strategies: (a) peer appraisal to validate shared suffering, (b) participatory surveillance to monitor peer progress, and (c) experiential mentoring to corroborate coping practices.

Second, we illustrate how repertoires of experiential knowledge in OSGs are generated, corroborated, and consolidated through communicative practices in peer appraisal, monitoring, and mentoring. Our findings show that active participants in the OSG engage in self-tracking and sharing personal progress in coping with binge eating. The interactive process of participatory surveillance transforms the participants’ individual projects of self-understanding into collective projects, facilitating knowledge exchanges based on self-experiments and subjective experiences. In contrast to the “quantified self” movement (Schüll, 2019; Whitson, 2013), which aims for collaborative self-understanding, peer monitoring in OSGs focuses primarily on documenting illness symptoms. Rather than focusing on fitness or a healthy lifestyle as influenced by socioeconomic discourses (Lupton, 2018; Schüll, 2016), the knowledge constructed in OSGs as communities of practice revolves around ways that could alleviate physical and mental distress. The experiential knowledge shared within the Binge Eating Group comprises a mixture of medical explanations and practical advice based on successful personal experiences. By using medical terms such as “body dysmorphic disorder,” participants medicalize the uncomfortable feelings they experience while coping with binge eating at different stages. This medicalization helps counteract a moral and cultural understanding of their symptoms, reducing the feelings of shame induced by cultural stigma and moral scrutinization (Yeo, 2021). Additionally, the action advice offered within the group allows participants to explore and test different coping strategies, providing a self-help approach through which they can provide feedback on their experiences. Through these communicative practices, repertoires of knowledge for coping with binge eating become assembled in a bottom-up, trial-and-error manner, underpinned by members’ experiential self-disclosures to solicit, propose, and corroborate coping practices.

The experiential knowledge that was constructed and shared within the studied group highlights the lack of professional support available for individuals with binge eating symptoms, particularly among young people. Our analysis of the group discussions revealed that the majority of the content was contributed by college or even high school students. In China, the prevailing paternalistic social environment emphasizes a model of “exemplary governing,” whereby parents expect the younger generation to adhere to “the right way of growing up” (Rao, 2019). This social control extends beyond the teenage years into the early twenties, when young individuals still rely on their families for support while pursuing their college education. Participants who developed binge eating symptoms often experienced immense pressure under this exemplary governing and tended to conceal their deviant behavior instead of seeking public help (Chang & Bazarova, 2016; Yang et al., 2013). In the absence of accessible psychotherapeutic resources, individuals with binge eating symptoms turned to online platforms and formed self-help communities to find effective coping strategies. While some participants received professional treatment or training (as in the case of Miu) and became influential mentors within the community, the majority relied on self-taught methods and experiential information.

Third, we shed light on experiential self-disclosure in OSGs as a communal currency, which constitutes both a coin of exchange that elicits reciprocity and a corroborative tool that establishes mutual trust. Our findings suggest that sharing personal experiences is essential for identifying needs, soliciting advice, and eliciting empathy from others. Disclosing personal experiences in digital public spaces, even anonymously, could lead to feelings of vulnerability. In the binge-eating group, almost every post began with either a long or short personal story of impulsive eating. Such self-exposure not only functions as an emotional outlet but also communicates the imperative of the issue brought up by the help-seeker. Self-disclosures also help readers know more about the writer, thus drawing the line for one’s comforting level (in food logs) or scope of knowledge (in AMAs) for upcoming comments and replies. Furthermore, the sharing of personal experiences and logging one’s “recovery” progress afford legitimacy, especially for those who have “recovered,” to corroborate the knowledge shared by other participants. In these ways, experiential self-disclosures facilitate corroboration among members.

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated the utility of applying the CoP perspective to examine an online community in a health-related context, which remains underexamined in prior CoP research. We show that learning in CoPs is not confined to practical, “hard” knowledge about concrete skills but also “soft” knowledge that could lead to improvements in participants’ social and psychological well-being. The sharing and negotiation of experiential knowledge within a community not only offers epistemic resources for individuals who are new to the situation, helping them overcome social isolation and navigate binge-related challenges but also contributes to the development of a collective set of strategies and coping mechanisms for dealing with disruptive health experiences, encompassing both mental adjustment and tactical actions.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Tsz Hang Chu, who assisted with the selective coding of the data.

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fan Xiao

Fan Xiao (MA, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) is a PhD candidate at the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research centers on Chinese digital culture, focusing on popular gender discourse as a contested terrain for the platform economy, social regulation, and individual agency. Her research appears in Media, Culture & Society, Health Communication, and Global Media and China.

Tien Ee Dominic Yeo

Tien Ee Dominic Yeo (PhD, University of Cambridge) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. His research is primarily concerned with how social actors negotiate new ideas or challenges related to digital media, health, and sexuality.