1. Supportive Communication, SOVC
and Health Outcomes in Online
Infertility Groups
Jennifer Welbourne, PhD
University of Texas- Pan American
Anita Blanchard, PhD and
Marla Boughton, MA
University of North Carolina Charlotte
2. Infertility and Virtual Health
Communities
Significant, increasing number of
couples who experience infertility
May lack traditional (FtF) support
outlets
Virtual health communities can
provide support
3. Advantages of Virtual Health
Communities
No temporal & geographic
boundaries
Increased heterogeneity of network
Increased comfort
4. Supportive Communication in Virtual
Health Communities
Types of Supportive Communication
Emotional
Informational
Engaging in Supportive
Communication
Actively providing support
Receiving support
Observing exchange of support
5. Psychosocial Benefits
Active Participation
Greater improvement in mood (Rodgers &
Chen, 2005)
Enhanced well-being and decreased
negative mood (Shaw et al, 2006)
Lower distress (Barak & Dolev-Cohen, 2006)
Receiving Messages
Lower levels of distress and stress
(Barak & Dolev-Cohen, 2006; Wright, 2002)
Observing the Exchange of Support
6. Supportive Communication and Sense
of Virtual Community
Members’ feelings of identity,
belonging and attachment with
others in their online group (Blanchard &
Markus, 2004)
Social Exchange Theory (Goulder, 1960)
Hypothesis 1: Supportive
communication is associated with
stronger SOVC
7. SOVC and Health Outcomes
SOC in FtF community is related to
satisfaction with and commitment to the
community (Burroughs & Eby, 1998)
active involvement in community activities and
problem-focused coping behavior (McMillan & Chavis,
1986)
lower stress (Cowman et al, 2004; Ferrari et al, 2007)
improved well-being (Farrell et al, 2004)
increased quality of life (Kennett & Payne, 2005)
improved experiences (Ferrari et al, 2007)
8. SOVC and Health Outcomes
Hypothesis 2: Perceived stress is
associated with more health
symptoms
Hypothesis 3: SOVC is associated
with fewer health symptoms
Hypothesis 4: SOVC moderates the
relationship between stress and
health symptoms
10. Participants
N=122 women from 2 VCs
Age: 21-43 (M = 29) years.
Ethnicity: 97.5% Caucasian
Activity Levels:
regularly read messages (M = 5.0)
posted messages (M = 3.84)
started new threads (M = 3.09)
11. Procedure & Research Context
Procedure
online anonymous survey
link on message board
Research Context
Unique features of infertility groups
12. Measures
Supportive Communication (modified from
Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub, 1989)
Emotional Support (8 items)
how often participants provided, received,
and observed exchange of emotional
support within VC
Informational Support (9 items)
how often participants provided, received,
and observed exchange of informational
support within VC
15. Supportive Communication as Predictors
of SOVC
Model B S.E. β
SOVC
Providing Emotional Support .04 .11 .05
Providing Informational Support .14 .11 .20
Receiving Emotional Support .09 .11 .12
Receiving Informational Support .14 .11 .18
Observing Emotional Support .71 .25 .46**
Observing Informational Support -.49 .23 -.34**
Note. R2 = .35, * p < .05, ** p < .01.
16. SOVC and Stress as Predictors of
Health Symptoms
Model B S.E. β
Step 1
SOVC -1.31 .78 -.15
Stress 2.50 .78 .28**
Step 2
SOVC -1.61 .79 -.18*
Stress 2.81 .79 .32**
SOVC X Stress -1.71 .90 -.17t
Note. Step 1: R =.10, p < .10, R Δ for Step 2 = .02, p = .06;
t
p = .06, * p < .05, ** p < .01.
17. Results: SOVC and Stress as
Predictors of Health Symptoms
SOVC
19
high
low
18
17
Symptoms
16
15
14
13
12
low high
Stress
18. Discussion
Observing the exchange of support in the
VC associated with SOVC (Hypothesis 1)
Higher levels of stress associated with
more physical health symptoms (Hypothesis
2)
SOVC was negatively related to health
symptoms (Hypothesis 3)
Strong SOVC buffered the relationship
between stress and health symptoms
(Hypothesis 4)
19. Implications
Women dealing with infertility should be
encouraged to seek online support groups
Administrators should facilitate
expressions of emotional support
members’ ability to see the exchange of
support
Importance of SOVC in online health
communities
20. Limitations
Inability to firmly establish causal
direction
Self-report data
Homogeneous sample