Research Study: Virtual Focus Groups NEAR Labs at University of Pittsburgh

Research Study: Virtual Focus Groups NEAR Labs at University of Pittsburgh

The Internet has revolutionized how humans communicate – for better and for worse. For example, digital health experts have raised concerns about health misinformation, negative social influences, social media and gaming addiction, and other problematic impacts of new social technologies. These can have serious impacts on overall health and mental health in particular. However, digital platforms offer practically limitless potential for self-directed learning and social engagement, so there has been growing scientific interest in understanding more positive aspects of digital media use. For example, online support groups may offer an easily accessible and cost-effective approach to enhance recovery from mental and behavioral health conditions.

Mapping the Recovery Forum Landscape. There are well over 200 English-language online forums (e.g., chat rooms, social media communities) focusing on addiction recovery. They can be very active – with response times averaging under 10 minutes. On the other end of the spectrum, some forums may be slower than postal mail or totally inactive. It’s not apparent what drives people toward some forums and away from others. A team at the Networks Enhancing Addiction Recovery (NEAR) Lab did a comprehensive search of recovery forums, then developed a basic guide to catalog and describe them. We published our work in Internet Interventions journal and set up a public resource guide at https://onlinerecovery.pitt.edu/near-far/

What Makes Online Support Forums Unique? If people venture into online forums for support, it is also helpful to have a map of the terrain – like what makes some active forums different from others? In addition to common landmarks around people’s alcohol or drug use or spiritual alignment, the terrain that NEAR Lab studies is the landscape of online social support. In our research on a highly active forum, people were found to receive primarily emotional support, followed by appraisal support (e.g., helpful feedback), and to a smaller extent informational support (e.g., facts, instructions). While we can’t control the quantity or quality of support people get, understanding it is still important. In fact, other research indicates that the act of giving support may be as good or better than receiving it.

How You Can Support Our Research. Overall, there may be more effective ways of giving support and also appreciating the support that we might receive. Understanding these social behaviors could help people navigate online spaces more smoothly and they might benefit more from the journey. To move this research forward, NEAR Lab is currently looking for research participants with experience using online forums for alcohol recovery. We will be hosting online focus groups in early 2025 and surveys later that year. We will be grateful if readers choose to sign up and keep in touch about our studies. Please email NEAR@pitt.edu or read about our current study at https:/onlinerecovery.pitt.edu/focus-groups/

Thanks and Happy Holidays,

Jason Colditz, PhD

Director, NEAR Lab

University of Pittsburgh