Practices Analysis and Digital Platform Design: An Interdisciplinary Study of Social Support

People are turning increasingly to the Internet to find support and share their experience and feelings when they are undergoing hardships such as medical problems. The aim of our ongoing research project is to design innovative online social support services. In order to pave the way for this complex undertaking, several interdisciplinary studies were conducted in this framework: discourse analysis was carried out on online discussions focusing on social support, observers attended support group meetings attended by family caregivers, and interviews were conducted with these caregivers. The application of our findings to our design project is discussed.

[1]  Myriam Lewkowicz,et al.  Translating social support practices into online services for family caregivers , 2009, GROUP.

[2]  D. Goldsmith,et al.  Communicating Social Support , 2004 .

[3]  Scott E. Caplan,et al.  Bringing theory to research on computer-mediated comforting communication , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[4]  R. Ryckman,et al.  Social support in diabetes: a systematic review of controlled intervention studies. , 2005, Patient education and counseling.

[5]  K. Humphreys,et al.  Communication patterns in an on‐line mutual help group for problem drinkers , 2000 .

[6]  Jan Marco Leimeister,et al.  Acceptance and Utility of a Systematically Designed Virtual Community for Cancer Patients , 2005 .

[7]  P. Dunham,et al.  Computer-Mediated Social Support: Single Young Mothers as a Model System , 1998, American journal of community psychology.

[8]  Neil S. Coulson,et al.  Receiving Social Support Online: An Analysis of a Computer-Mediated Support Group for Individuals Living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome , 2005, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[9]  Myriam Lewkowicz,et al.  Designing Social Support Online Services for Communities of Family Caregivers , 2009, BIS.

[10]  S. Duck,et al.  Everyday communicative contexts for social support. , 1994 .

[11]  Lili Cheng,et al.  HutchWorld: Lessons Learned - A Collaborative Project: Fred Hutchsinson Cancer Research Center & Microsoft Research , 2000, Virtual Worlds.

[12]  S. Herring.  Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis : An Approach to Researching Online Behavior , 2004 .

[13]  G. Bogat,et al.  Mutual help goes on‐line , 1997 .

[14]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  Empathy and online interpersonal trust: A fragile relationship , 2004, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[15]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  Interpersonal trust and empathy online: a fragile relationship , 2003, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[16]  J. Pennebaker,et al.  Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[17]  J. Jill Suitor,et al.  Peer Support for Alzheimer’s Caregivers , 2002 .

[18]  Nina Knoll,et al.  Reciprocal support provision: personality as a moderator? , 2006 .

[19]  Robert P. Hawkins,et al.  CHESS: 10 years of research and development in consumer health informatics for broad populations, including the underserved , 2002, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[20]  Panayiotis Zaphiris,et al.  Patterns of empathy in online communication , 2007, CHI.

[21]  S. Herring.  Computer‐Mediated Discourse , 2005 .

[22]  Thomas Erickson,et al.  Notes on design practice: stories and prototypes as catalysts for communication , 1995 .

[23]  M. White,et al.  Receiving social support online: implications for health education. , 2001, Health education research.