The Channel Matters: Self-disclosure, Reciprocity and Social Support in Online Cancer Support Groups

Abstract

People with health concerns go to online health support groups to obtain help and advice. To do so, they frequently disclose personal details, many times in public. Although research in non-health settings suggests that people self-disclose less in public than in private, this pattern may not apply to health support groups where people want to get relevant help. Our work examines how the use of private and public channels influences members' self-disclosure in an online cancer support group, and how channels moderate the influence of self-disclosure on reciprocity and receiving support. By automatically measuring people's self-disclosure at scale, we found that members of cancer support groups revealed more negative self-disclosure in the public channels compared to the private channels. Although one's self-disclosure leads others to self-disclose and to provide support, these effects were generally stronger in the private channel. These channel effects probably occur because the public channels are the primary venue for support exchange, while the private channels are mainly used for follow-up conversations. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our work.

Keywords: Channel Difference; Online Communities; Online Health Support Groups; Self-disclosure; Social Support.

Figures

Figure 1:

Comparison of negative self-disclosure in private messages, forum thread starting messages and comments (replies). Error bars stand for bootstrapped standard errors.

Figure 2:

Interaction between Channel and Level of Self-disclosure on Reciprocity and Support Provision.

Figure 3:

Structural equation model showing the mediation analysis of self-disclosure, senders’ seeking social support behavior and respondents’ provision of social support. Values represent standardized regression coefficients. Here, p