Surviving Grief: An Analysis of the Exchange of Hope in Online Grief Communities

Abstract

Online grief communities represent relatively new forms of peer support. However, the degree to which they are helpful for individual grieving processes is unknown. To date, no research has evaluated the type or quality of support exchanged in online grief communities. To begin to address these questions, this study analyzed 564 messages from internet grief websites to: (1) classify the type of helping skills used, and (2) extract themes contained in the content of the messages. Messages selected for analysis were the first response to an original post, assuming they would be the first effort to provide support to a grieving individual. Results revealed a majority of responses contained self-disclosure. Themes in the messages suggested provision of more than "one-way" support; messages themes also included exchanging hope for the future by sharing one's own story, validating the grief experience, providing resources, and exchanging psychosocial support. Clinical implications and research recommendations are discussed.

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

“…They came to the group to find out whether others defined normal in the same way. This is consistent with other findings showing that grieving individuals seek online support to validate their grieving experiences and ensure what they were going through was normal (Sofka, 1997;Swartwood et al, 2011).…”

“…One analyzed data from e-mail messages, grief websites, interviews, and face-to-face support groups and found that grieving individuals faced exclusion due to the social stigma surrounding suicide (Hollander, 2001). The other analyzed the structure, format, and content of replies posted to messages in online grief support groups, attending to the type of helping skills displayed (Swartwood, Veach, Kuhne, Lee, & Ji, 2011). However, this study only examined the peer responses to initial posts, leaving open the question of how newcomers structure their initial messages to the support group audience.…”

Latent profiles of physical and psychological outcomes of bereaved parents in China who lost their only child

“…offline-support groups) which are targeted at bereaved parents have more professional workers and can provide more professional service than online self-help groups and community institutions. Future research need to assess the nature of the service provided by these support groups as well as how often bereaved parents take part in the activities in order to clarify the characteristics of bereaved people recruited from different support groups (Swartwood et al, 2011). …”

“…In addition, community institutions, self-help groups and non-profit organizations provide a space for bereaved parents to share their loss experience and look for comfort, and thus help the bereaved parents recover (Cacciatore, 2010; Pan, Liu, Li, & Kwok, 2016). Online self-help groups provide a space for bereaved people to share their emotions with people who have also lost their loved ones, and to acquire some knowledge on how to cope with grief (Chapple & Ziebland, 2011; Liu, 2014; Swartwood, Veach, Kuhne, Lee, & Ji, 2011). In China, offline support groups organize activities for bereaved parents and provide support when needed (Fang, 2013), and community institutions provide material and emotional support to this population, such as organizing get-togethers on holidays, visiting bereaved parents or providing practical help when needed.…”

Grieving online

“…Using the Internet as means of support during a period of grieving can have positive aspects, such as emotional and informational support [36], but there are potential negative consequences including online abandonment by those who have provided support [17] and being the subject of targeted abuse [27].…”