Using Google Groups, we chose to analyze a support group for addiction. We coded the first 20 messages that were of substantial length. Because some threads and messages were short, we looked at seven different threads. Topics of addiction ranged from drugs and alcohol to constant fantasizing to loving unavailable women. Across all cases of addiction, we found similar results for each code. (see the table below)
This coding scheme is based on the Braithwaite study. Information includes support through facts: advice, referral, situation appraisal, and teaching. Tangible assistance includes physical support: loans, performing direct/indirect task, active participation, and expressing willingness.
Esteem support includes compliments, validation, relief of blame. Network support includes helping the person find other resources: access, presence, and companions. Emotional support includes relationship, physical affection, confidentiality, sympathy, understanding, empathy, encouragement, and prayer. Humor lightens the mood with comedy.
In comparison to the Braithwaite study, our study had:
· significantly higher percentage of information,
· similar percentage of tangible assistance,
· similar percentage of esteem support,
· significantly higher percentage of network support,
· and same percentage of emotional support.
The reason for discrepancies is the different study subjects. The Braithwaite study looked at disability support groups, while we looked at addiction support groups. The nature of disability support groups is to help the other people cope with being disabled. This is best accomplished by offering emotional support. A third of the messages contain information because a small portion of the support group will be looking for it. While newly disabled people will likely need information about their disability, the majority of disabled people are those who already have this information. This is true on a smaller scale as well for network support. The nature of an addiction support group is to help other people understand and get over addictions. This is best accomplished by offering information and resources, so more than a third (Braithwaite) of messages contain these topics. (See more results of our study below).
For our study, a large majority of thread responses offer information and a little less than half offer network and emotional support. The least common codes were esteem support and humor. There results make sense when considering the nature of addiction support groups. People in these support groups are looking for help to understand and then get over the addition. Responders know this so they naturally offer:
· helpful resources about the addiction (network support),
· share their knowledge of the addiction (information),
· encourage the person to get over the addiction (emotional support),
· and empathize by sharing their similar addiction experiences (information / emotional support).
The goal of each of these responses is to help the person who posted originally understand the addiction, feel able to get over the addiction, and know way to getting over the addiction.
Our inter-rater reliability was relatively high at .775. Most of our disagreements came from our judgment of emotional support. According to Braithwaite, "Coders found the definition of this category (emotional support) to be too broad." Emotional support, which includes relationship, physical affect, sympathy, etc., is subjective to the coder and some people may categorize a message as sympathetic, while others may disagree.
Wallace’s helping and number factors states that increased numbers online reduce helping behavior due to responsibility and decreases “noticeability.” In our analysis, we did not find support for Wallace’s number factors but found evidence that supports Walther’s ideas about online social support.
In his study, Walther considered factors other than numbers and developed four dimensions of attraction to online social support, social distance, anonymity, interaction management, and access. Social distance gives the availability of greater expertise in the larger online social network. In one of the threads, “sytech” was dissatisfied with his current AA recovery group and was seeking to find another recovery group to join. In the replies, many people who lived in the general region offered alternative locations. Although this example only involves people in a generally close area, the online community can actually create a social network worldwide offering much expertise. Also, Walther’s anonymity dimension plays an important role in support groups because in many cases, people want to remain anonymous about their addictions. In the same thread about recovery groups, there are nicknames that include “sytech,” “Blue Moon,” and “Moon Raker.” Individuals within the social support group could give advice, sympathized, and joked around without the fear of their identities being revealed like it would be FtF. In addition, interaction management is important in online support groups. Members want to be able to craft messages carefully, especially when advising others or trying to express similar experiences about addictions. Lastly, the online community offers 24/7 access to online support systems , where members are free to use the support group whenever they want to or need to, as opposed to typical daily schedules.
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