Empathic Exchanges in Online Cancer Support Groups: Distinguishing Message Expression and Reception Effects

Abstract

Past studies on the efficacy of participation in online cancer support groups have primarily focused on the role of expression in the accrual of health benefits for participants. Unfortunately, few steps have been taken to determine whether this observed effect arises solely from the internal mental processes underlying the act of expressing or, perhaps, owes something to a nuanced, multidimensional understanding of expression that includes reception of responses to what is expressed. To test for the multilayered effect, we attend to one of the key concepts in the online support community scholarship: empathy. Our findings suggest that it is a combination of empathy expression and reception that is crucial to attaining optimal benefits for cancer patients. Further, our finding supports the buffering hypothesis that empathic expression provides a salutary effect for patients who experienced a higher degree of concern associated with their cancer diagnosis and follow-up treatments.

A Qualitative Analysis of “Naturalistic” Conversations in a Peer-Led Online Support Community for Lung Cancer

“…Information exchange was rare in this online support community and other online communities without empathic support. 39,54 However, more research attention needs to be paid to Internet support for patients with lung cancer, and especially their support persons, as there are few studies identifying their experiences and outcomes in peer-led online support communities, as well as ''when'' in the illness trajectory they are seeking information exchange and empathic support. 52 The messages analyzed in this study came primarily from females who were wives or daughters of the patient and females diagnosed with lung cancer.…”

Lurking as an Active Participation Process: A Longitudinal Investigation of Engagement with an Online Cancer Support Group

“…Previous studies by Shaw et al (2006, 2007) have found that breast cancer patients who post about their experience can have a range of psychosocial benefits. More recent work suggests that it is the mental processes underlying the actual composition of language that produces the benefits (Han et al, 2011; Pennebaker, 1997). Expression’s health benefits may in fact not be effects of disclosure in the literal sense of revealing pre-existing memory contents.…”

Transaction logfile analysis in health communication research: Challenges and opportunities

“…As illustrated in Fig. 2, this merged data can be combined with longitudinal survey data collected before and after a support group intervention to examine why some patients express and/or receive more [33] and how expression and reception relate to psychosocial health outcomes for patients [32]. This methodological approach could provide highly granular data on the nature of the exchanges occurring within online support groups and offer an avenue to exploring effects previously inaccessible for testing due to the limits of extant research methodologies.…”

“…Han et al [32] used the MySQL relational database management system to combine the content coding of individual messages with another database generated from log data. Log data contained information about individual participants' online handle and numerical ID, the message relevant behavior (i.e., post, read), and the message ID related to posting or reading.…”