Abstract
(1) Background: Digital health research has indicated that people with stigmatized health problems are drawn to online support groups (OSGs) because these groups help them to manage such conditions. However, little is known about how media affordances—interactions between the technology and the user—reconfigure the ways in which stigmatized individuals use OSGs and interact with others like themselves. (2) Method: The current study applied an affordance framework to evaluate how Facebook and WhatsApp support groups can help military veterans and their partners cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was based on interviews with 34 PTSD-OSG members in Israel. (3) Findings: This research identified five affordances that members appraised as enhancing their coping efforts in the digital world: visibility, availability, multimediality, surveillance, and synchronicity. (4) Conclusions: This study reveals the connection between a specific stigmatized mental health disorder (i.e., PTSD) and perceptions of communication technologies (i.e., affordances), and specifies the uses of technologies for coping with this mental health disorder. Moreover, this study may inform digital intervention designers about which communication affordances can potentially lead to better health outcomes.
Highlights
Social media applications serve as the primary online connection for most individuals
This study aimed to examine the way members of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-Online support groups (OSGs)—veterans and cohabiting partners—perceived the media affordances of their Facebook and WhatsApp support groups
This study applied an affordance framework to examine how digital platforms can assist military veterans and their partners searching for online support and how these platforms can hamper their coping behaviors
Summary
Social media applications serve as the primary online connection for most individuals. In recent years technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp have become significant social support resources [1]. Online support groups (OSGs) are growing areas of communication research. This trend is illustrated by the growing number of systematic reviews examining OSGs across various health topics [2,3,4]. The role of computer-mediated communication (CMC) appears to be especially important for individuals coping with stigmatized mental health issues. Several studies have highlighted the fact that people with stigmatized health problems are drawn to OSGs because these groups help them to manage their stigmatized health conditions [5,6,7,8,9,10]
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