Online mutual support in bereavement: An empirical examination (original) (raw)
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Internet Support Groups for Suicide Survivors: A New Mode for Gaining Bereavement Assistance
OMEGA--Journal of Death and Dying, 2008
Taken among parents who sustained the loss of a child to suicide this study explores the participation of parents in Internet support groups, comparing their demographic and loss-related characteristics (N = 104) to other parent survivors participating in face-to-face support groups (N = 297). Contrary to expectations that Internet affiliates would be concentrated in under-served rural areas, we found similar levels of urban, suburban, small city and rural residents in both Internet and face-to-face subsamples. Bivariate and multivariate analyses suggested several important factors contributing to interest in Internet grief support including: 24/7 availability and opportunities to invest more time into this type of support group experience. Compared to their face-to-face group counterparts, Internet affiliates experienced greater suicide stigmatization from their families and other associates. Unable to find ready comfort and support from their personal communities, Internet users-and especially highly depressed survivors-sought and obtained valuable help from the Internet support resource.
In an age of rising impact of online communication in social network sites, emotional interaction is neither limited nor restricted by time or space. Bereavement extends to the anonymity of cyberspace. What role does virtual interaction play in social network sites in dealing with the basic human emotion of grief caused by the loss of a beloved per-son? The analysis laid out in this article provides answers in light of an interdisciplinary perspective on online bereavement. Relevant lines of research are scrutinized. After lay-ing out the theoretical spectrum for the study, hypotheses based on a prior in-depth qual-itative content analysis of 179 postings in three different German online bereavement platforms (Döveling & Wasgien, in press) are proposed and scrutinized in a quantitative content analysis (2127 postings from 318 users). Emotion-regulation patterns in social network sites and similarities as well as differences in online-bereavement of children, adolescents and adults are revealed. Large-scale quantitative findings into central mo-tives, patterns, and restorative effects of online shared bereavement in regulating dis-tress, fostering personal empowerment (cf. Barak, Boniel-Nissim, & Suler, 2008) and engendering meaning (cf. Neimeyer, in press) are presented. The article closes with im-plications for further analysis in memorialization practices.
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Social support is one of the strongest determinants of bereavement outcomes, yet little is understood about the community's recognition of grief and intentions to provide social support to grieving persons. Four-hundred and seventy-six adults responded to an online vignette and questionnaire measuring grief norms and supportive intentions. Respondent gender, age, and bereavement status all had some association with expectations of grief, intentions to support, perceived helpfulness of support attempts, and opinions towards the diagnostic classification of grief. Given that most bereavement support is informal, this study informs the development of community capacity to provide constructive, timely bereavement support.
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This research evaluated the efficacy of a psycho-educational Internet self-help tool to educate and support recently (1-6 months) bereaved individuals. The goal of the website was to help users normalize their grief to enhance their adaptive adjustment. A randomized controlled trial evaluated the gains in social cognitive theory constructs and state anxiety. Compared to the control group (N = 34), treatment participants (N = 33) reported significant multivariate gains (eta-square = .191). Significant program effects were obtained on all three outcome measures: attitude (eta-square = . 177), self-efficacy (eta-square = .106), and state anxiety (eta-square = .083). These findings suggest the potential efficacy of an Internet-based grief support tool to enhance adaptive adjustment of the bereaved.
The Role of Social Support in Bereavement
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Spousal bereavement involves a social network crisis. The individual's response is influenced by prebereavement personality factors and preexisting social network characteristics. The impact of the loss on the individual and other network members, and the presence or absence of concurrent stressors, will determine the "goodness offit" between the support offered and the needs of the bereaved and perception of the environment as helpful or unhelpful. An inadequate social network is associated with high distress over the course of bereavement. Intervention aimed at increasing social support can decrease the distress of bereavement.
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The efficacy of a brief internet-based self-help intervention for the bereaved
Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2010
Research so far has shown little evidence that written disclosure facilitates recovery from bereavement. There are good reasons to assume that written disclosure may only benefit those bereaved who are at risk for developing problems or who are experiencing significant psychological problems as a result of their loss, and only when appropriate writing instructions are used. Drawing on previous work in the area of post-traumatic stress, a writing intervention was designed to test these assumptions. Bereaved individuals, who were still significantly distressed by their loss, were randomly assigned to the intervention condition (N ¼ 460) or a waiting-list control condition (N ¼ 297). Both groups filled in questionnaires online at baseline, and 3 and 6 months later. The intervention was administered via e-mail immediately after baseline measurement. Results showed that writing decreased feelings of emotional loneliness and increased positive mood, in part through its effect on rumination. However, writing did not affect grief or depressive symptoms. Contrary to expectations, effects did not depend on participants' risk profile or baseline distress level. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The mental health of visitors of web-based support forums for bereaved by suicide
Crisis, 2015
Persons bereaved by suicide are reluctant to ask for social support when they experience feelings of guilt and blame. A web-based peer forum may provide a safe and anonymous place for mutual support. This study examined the mental health changes of visitors of two online support forums for persons bereaved by suicide and their experiences with the forum over 1 year. Visitors of two forums completed self-report measures at baseline and at 6 and 12 months' follow-up. Repeated measures analyses were used to study changes in well-being, depressive symptoms, and complicated grief. Additionally, participants were interviewed about their experiences with the forum. The 270 participants were mostly female, low in well-being, with high levels of depressive symptoms and complicated grief. Suicidal risk was high for 5.9%. At 12 months, there were small to medium-sized significant improvements in well-being and depressive symptoms (p < .001) and nearly as much for grief (p = .08). About ...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: Online resources constitute a new and effective way to obtain support or information during bereavement processes. However, little is known about the needs, use and expectations of people bereaved by suicide regarding online resources. Method: The objective of our national cross-sectional online survey was to collect the use, needs and expectations of people bereaved by suicide regarding online resources. The data were collected from July to October 2021 through a 26-item online questionnaire hosted on the website LimeSurvey. Results: A total of 401 respondents fully completed the questionnaire. Their mean age was 45.7. The majority of participants were women bereaved by the suicide of their child or partner. Half of the participants were bereaved for less than 3 years and benefited from counselling during their bereavement process. Three-quarters of the participants used the Internet for their bereavement process, mainly to obtain information on suicide bereavement and ...
Social support in bereavement: Developing and validating a new scale
International Journal of Psychology, 2021
Although social support has been considered to be beneficial for the bereaved, mixed findings exist in the literature. This may be due to variations in conceptualising and measuring social support. This study aims to offer a new validated scale for research on social support in bereavement. Part 1 describes the generation of the item pool, which was derived from narratives of 28 bereaved Chinese. Part 2 includes the items selected using item analysis and explanatory factor analysis to form the preliminary version of the Scale of Social Support in Bereavement (SSB) based on data collected from 195 bereaved adults. Part 3 examined the psychometric properties of the newly developed SSB with a sample of another 196 bereaved adults. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated a useful structure of four factors, including "living support," "economic support," "grief processing," and "emotion restoration." The convergent validity, internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability of the measure were shown to be strong. SSB is the first scale which measures comprehensive types of support in bereavement. It can be applied in exploration of the role of social support in bereavement, and validated in different cultural contexts.