Assignment 8: Coding Social Support

Members: Vivian Quan (Blue), [Zak Bell (Blue), Mitch Chubinsky (Blue)]
Group analyzed: alt.support.menopauseThreads used: Threads that we used: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.menopause/browse_thread/thread/273950388612d4d1/46959ad61f246a15?hl=en#46959ad61f246a15; http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.menopause/browse_thread/thread/726e546d763fec18/de4374eca086398e?hl=en#de4374eca086398e; http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.menopause/browse_thread/thread/36d51bcb7349cdde/42c1ca08be6ffec8?hl=en#42c1ca08be6ffec8; http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.menopause/browse_thread/thread/dfa3ffac75ccc73c/68ad85f01a017eb0?hl=en#68ad85f01a017eb0

In order to determine the level of social support found or seen in online groups, Braithwaite et al. “coded” messages. In our homework assignment, we read messages on a menopause support group. It was interesting to see how our results were analogous yet different from the results found in Braithwaite et al. (1999).

Our results:
Information Support 85%
Tangible Assistance 0%
Esteem Support 25%
Network Support 0%
Emotional Support 25%
Humor 30%
Inter-rater reliability 95%

Information, or support that individuals seek in areas of advice, referrals, situation appraisal, and teaching, was seen often in the messages our group coded. We believed this was so because of the support group we looked at. Menopause creates many questions for women experiencing it, or women who are curious about that stage in life. We found that many of the messages we analyzed contained questions regarding medical advice—should X get surgery? Should Y go to another doctor? Which doctor should Z go to? The majority of the posts had information-related subjects. Braithwaite et al. (1999) found that ~30% of social support messages contained information support, but we found more than double that percentage!

Because menopause is a very emotional subject that affects the lives of all women at a certain time in their lives, we predicted and found that there was a decent amount of emotional and esteem support. Braithwaite et al. (1999) found ~20% of esteem support and ~40% of emotional support. This is very similar to our findings (25% for both types of online group support). In the messages we coded, we discussed the concept that people needed others to confirm their decision-making skills, and we saw specific examples from some members’ lives. For example, if I needed help making a decision, I would have been supported with confirmations and personal examples why that decision was a good decision. Esteem support is support that strengthens one’s individual importance and significance through compliments, and emotional support is support given through encouragement, prayers, and affection.

Our group found zero tangible assistance and zero network support which is similar to Braithwaite et al.’s results where both tangible assistance and network support was found in less than 10% of all messages analyzed in the study. Tangible assistance is when someone performs a direct task or expresses willingness to aid others and network support is connecting to similar others. We predict that neither of these was illustrated in our results because of the nature of the “online” group. There are few people who really comment and identify with this menopause support group, but most of them probably do not live near one another—it would be much to far and difficult to travel to each other to provide tangible assistance. There was no network support group because of the small amount of people who identified (and by identified, I mean posted) with the group; there is a chance they would have known each other prior to joining the online support group.

We found much humor in the messages we coded. We assumed that occurred because of the connection and bonds that humor creates. There’s a reason why people say laughter is the best medicine, and even though these women may not necessarily be sick, laughter is a cure for many things.

It was shocking to see how high our inter-rater reliability was; I think it is because of the messages we chose to analyze, and that we have pretty similar thought-patterns. It also wasn’t too hard to code the posts because the messages seemed pretty clear.

The major themes we saw revolved around anonymity and reciprocity. The anonymity allows more uninhibited conversations, especially since the people who post only need a username (which doesn’t do much to identify who they are or could be in real life). The anonymity extends even further to the extent that people posting can diffuse the responsibility by saying a friend or a family member is the one who needs the support—there is no pressure to uphold a self-impression and people can be really honest and truthful with one another. Reciprocity was a common theme also because we saw the same few names repeating, and so the same few people interacted with the same few people in this small network.