Skyler Sourifman (Brown)
In Braithwaite’s article, “Communication of Social Support in Computer-Mediated Groups for People with Disabilities” he discusses the different types of social support messages exchanged by people in a CMC disability support group. His study of social support was based upon three main issue which include: 1) What types of supportive messages are communicated in CMC support groups serving persons with disabilities? 2) To what extent is social support manifested in the messages of CMC social support groups serving persons with disabilities? and 3) How do the patterns of support messages exchanged by persons with disabilities in a mediated context vary from those reported in previous literature?
In our examination of social support messages we choose to analyze an online depression support discussion group, more specifically a thread on suicidal thoughts. Depression is an illness shunned by our society and can be difficult to discuss face-to-face, however, an online environment can foster a more feasible support system. According to Walther and Boyd, there are four dimensions of attraction that lead to online social support: social distance, anonymity, interaction management and access. All four of these factors are apparent in the thread we chose to analyze and contributed the thread’s success. The dimension of access was extremely applicable in the suicidal thoughts thread because when a person is contemplating suicide, they need immediate support. The CMC environment provides the necessary help without depending on a typical daily schedule like a routine therapist appointment.
After coding the messages, we found an 86.67% inter-rater reliability, which is statistically significant. Although some factors were more apparent than others, all six facets of Braithwaite’s coding scheme were evident in our analysis of the suicidal thoughts group. Our most frequent factors were information and network support, which were both present in messages 85% of the time. Our findings do not follow suit with Braithwaite’s percentages for information (31.3%). These results are what we would expect given the nature of suicide and depression. Many posts implied the importance of hearing others’ experiences and how they were able to overcome suicide; they provided the necessary information to cope with suicidal thoughts. In particular, they shared their experience with various therapists and types of therapy and offered each other advice that could not easily be learned sitting in a therapists’ office. Braithwaite found 7.1% for network support, which is significantly different from our findings. Network support aids in the transfer of information by connecting others with similar situations. When it comes to helping people with depression, it is most important for people to know that they are not alone and the have network to depend on and turn to for help. One particular post praises the importance of this particular network when a member states, “ Yes. And every node strengthens the network”.
In addition, we found emotional support to be 55%, which support Braithwaite’s findings of 40%. Typically, people who are suffering from suicidal thoughts are in need of empathy and understanding that they have people who care about them. As one person states, “I might have mentioned before, "no, bad Lisa! - you have a family that needs you, so you are not allowed to do that!". For esteem support we found it to be prevalent in 45% of the messages while Braithwaite only found it to be evident 18.6% of the time. This discrepancy can be explained by the difference in help offered to those with a disability vs. a mental illness, namely depression. People with suicidal thoughts need to understand that its not their fault and need that extra reassurance that they are worthy of living. Our analysis found tangible assistance to be evident 30% of the time while Braithwaite found it to be 2.7% of the time. The large discrepancy in our findings can be expected because suicidal thoughts have a more immediate need for tangible help than people with disabilities. Also, contemplation of suicide requires more drastic action and expressing willingness, to ensure that others know that they have someone to talk to and not act on their emotions. For purposes of our analysis, we also studied humor (10%), which is logical give the severity and seriousness of the issue. Overall, the discrepancies in our findings when compared to Braithwaite’s findings may also be contributed due to the fact that our sample was very small (20) and Braithwaite’s sample was very large (1,472).
Link To Suicidal Thoughts Forum
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