Grieving Online: Newcomers’ Constructions of Grief in an Online Support Group

Abstract

Research into peer conversations in online grief support groups remains scarce. The authors used discourse analysis to examine 107 initial posts to one such group to examine how newcomers constructed their initial posts to display their eligibility for membership. The authors identified three discursive features: formulating unusual stories of loss, describing uncontrollable emotional and physical states, and engaging in "troubles telling." These discursive patterns illustrate how grief is constructed in ways that may simultaneously conform to and resist norms around grief that exist offline. Implications for practitioners include the need to support individuals through validation of their "nonnormal" grief.

Stepping Back From Crisis Points

“…Research in this area has illustrated, for example, the importance of attending to one's legitimacy as a new member of that particular online community in their opening posts to be accepted as a newcomer (Antaki, Ardevol, Nunez, & Vayreda, 2005;Giles & Newbold, 2011;Osvaldsson, 2011;Stommel & Koole, 2010;Varga & Paulus, 2013). This can be particularly important for forums dealing with mental health issues, where members are often working against medical definitions and establishing their own group norms (Giles & Newbold, 2011;Stommel & Koole, 2010).…”

“Support is What Really Helped Me Get Through”: Understanding Athletes’ Online Disclosures about Pursuit and Receipt of Social Support During Concussion Recovery

“…For individuals who believe they have a health stigma, computer-mediated support groups are a viable pathway to obtain support (Wright & Rains, 2013). Online forums allow people to share their experiences in ways that are personally meaningful in venues where social norms are minimized (Varga & Paulus, 2014), and to share aspects of their identity where fears of repercussion are minimized (DeAndrea, 2015). In some online support forums and groups, there is a high presence of lurking (Han, Kim, Yoon, Shim, McTavish, & Gustafson, 2012), which allows users to benefit from community knowledge without feeling pressured to disclose their experiences.…”

“…Accordingly, online forums provide unique spaces for athletes to share their concussion recovery experiences in ways that are personally meaningful (Varga & Paulus, 2014) and to convey information they may not disclose offline. These outcomes are particularly salient given the stigmas associated with sport cultural norms surrounding athletes and toughness (Sanderson et al, 2017).…”

Graduate Students’ Construction of Researcher Identities Explored Through Discourse Analysis

“…All of the posts and comments were collected, organized, and analyzed. It is not uncommon for researchers working with online discussion data to focus their analysis on the initial posts (see, for example, Lester & Paulus, 2011;Paulus & Lester, 2013;Varga & Paulus, 2014). Because our purpose was to capture how students began to develop their research identities, we wanted to see how they first oriented to this new phenomenon in response to the initial prompt.…”

“…By using discussion board posts from online classes, participants used only online talk, in written form, to accomplish various tasks. A number of studies of online support groups have drawn upon discourse analysis and discursive psychology specifically to explore questions such as how participants construct identities through talk, justify deviant or non-standard behaviors, and validate their membership in a group (e.g., Gavin, Rodham, & Poyer, 2008;Horne & Wiggins, 2009;Varga & Paulus, 2014); as of yet, however, no such study has examined how graduate students work up their research identities. Our aim, then, was to better understand how students go about displaying their orientations to research paradigms in their online talk.…”