Online peer-to-peer sobriety support: A conceptualization of the peer to peer social support mechanisms in an online 'Stop Drinking' community
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Velmurugan, Mythreyi; Watson, Jason; Bruce, Christine
- Source
- IndraStra Global.
- Subject
- Alcoholism
119900 OTHER MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
080605 Decision Support and Group Support Systems
Online Communities
111711 Health Information Systems (incl. Surveillance)
Social Media
080600 INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Sobriety
- Language
- ISSN
- 2381-3652
Online communities allow problem drinkers to seek help anonymously without the judgement present in the face-to-face world. This article investigates peer to peer online support in an online community of self-identified problem drinkers. A content analysis was performed on a "Stop Drinking" Reddit.com community and 26 themes of interaction, belonging to 9 categories were identified as key interactions likely to provide value to those seeking to instantiate or maintain sobriety. These themes were arranged into a conceptual model consisting of three dimensions of interaction namely: goal-based interaction; relationship-based interactions; and platform-interactions. The conceptual model created by this research should help those in recovery utilize online communities more effectively and provide insight into how peer to peer online social support can be deliberately utilized to promote sobriety.