Supportive communication as a collective phenomenon: a dynamic systems account of emotional support provision and outcomes in online health communities

Developing a complete understanding of supportive communication requires learning more about how it unfolds among groups. We leveraged dynamic systems theory to document group-level emotional support provision practices in online health communities and examine their implications for discussion processes and the mood of support seekers. We evaluated sequences of person-centered feedback in the first three responses to threads started by community members seeking emotional support. Twelve different patterns of sequences were identified reflecting collective support provision behavior. Compared to the sequence containing only implicit recognition of a seeker’s feelings, sequences containing high person-centered feedback were more likely to foster high person-centered feedback in a later community response to the thread and more likely to be associated with an improvement in support seekers’ self-reported mood. The results of this project demonstrate how online communities collectively construct emotional support and the implications of those patterns for support seeking and provision.