Online Social Support: Analysis of an Online Discussion Forum for Significant Others of Deployed Service Members

Abstract

Military deployments can place stress on family members that can affect their physiological and psychological health. Although there has been much research on online social support in healthrelated groups, there is limited research on online social support in a deployment context. The researchers of this study conducted a content analysis of 151 discussion threads related to military deployments in an online forum for the significant others (SOs) of service members to examine the types of social support messages enacted between SOs. These enacted social support messages were further analyzed for each phase of the deployment cycle. Results showed that information and emotional support were the most frequent types of social support enacted by SOs during a deployment cycle. Information support was the most commonly requested type of social support during the pre-deployment and post-deployment phases, while emotional support was requested most often during the deployment phase. In response to the requests for social support, information support was the most commonly provided type of social support during the pre-deployment phase, while emotional support was the most commonly provided type of social support during the deployment and post-deployment phases.

Connecting During a Government Shutdown: Networked Care and the Temporal Aspects of Social Media Activism

“…Accessing social support is a major driver of online activity (Qian & Mao, 2010), both on forums and services focused on specific needs or life-stages, and social media. This is particularly true for stressful life events, including health problems (Laranjo et al, 2015; Rui et al, 2013), living with disability (Braithwaite et al, 1999), pregnancy and new motherhood as an overseas Chinese immigrant (Mao et al, 2010; Qian & Mao, 2010), and military spouses during their partner’s deployment (Desens et al, 2019). It is also sought out by sexual assault survivors (Hosterman et al, 2018; Lowenstein-Barkai, 2020; Manikonda et al, 2018), and those suffering from stigmatized mental health conditions (De Choudhury & Kiciman, 2017; Ni et al, 2020).…”

“…Online social support takes a variety of forms. Cutrona and Suhr’s (1992) framework encompasses informational, emotional, social network, tangible, and esteem support and across a multitude of studies and contexts, informational and emotional types of social support occur most frequently (Desens et al, 2019; Qian & Mao, 2010; Rains et al, 2015; Rui et al, 2013). On social media, one meta-analysis found that the preference for informational support remained, but there was scant tangible support (Liu et al, 2018).…”