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Social support seeking in response to stress: Person-level moderators, contextual factors, and the role of online venues

Rife, Sean Chandler
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1405976151

Abstract Details

2014, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
Existing theory and research on the relationship between stress and social support has focused primarily on in-person interactions. However, the Internet and social media provide new venues through which individuals can seek social support during stressful periods. The present dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by examining the relationship between stress and support seeking in three different venues: in-person, online through the social network service Facebook, and online through anonymous online forums. Personality (sex-role orientation, extraversion, and rejection sensitivity) and situational (social network size and event sensitivity) factors were included as potential moderators of this relationship. After filling out an initial questionnaire assessing social and personality variables, for the next 14 consecutive days participants completed daily diaries. They were asked what stressful events they experienced that day, and whether or not they responded to these events by seeking support through any of the three venues. Support seeking was tabulated separately for each venue. Results indicate that in-person support seeking was by far the most common response to perceptions of stress. A number of main effects were detected. Femininity was negatively correlated with support seeking in all venues. Extraversion negatively correlated with support seeking over Facebook. Social network size was positively correlated with support seeking through both online venues. Rejection sensitivity was positively correlated with anonymous online support seeking. Finally, issue sensitivity was negatively correlated with support seeking over anonymous online venues. Two of the proposed moderators significantly affected the stress-support seeking relationship: individuals who reported having larger social networks were more likely to seek support in person in response to stress, and those who reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity were more likely to seek support through anonymous online forums in response to stress. These findings represent some of the first insights into online support seeking in the age of social media. Despite the overall popularity of services such as Facebook, in-person interactions appear to be the primary means of communicating support requests. However, online venues may serve specific groups – in particular, those high in rejection sensitivity – by providing a nonthreatening context in which support can be sought.
Kathryn Kerns, PhD (Advisor)
John Updegraff, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Karin Coifman, PhD (Committee Member)
Roxburgh Susan, PhD (Committee Member)
Takayoshi Pamela, PhD (Committee Member)
125 p.
Personality Psychology; Psychology; Social Psychology
social media; technology; social support; stress; relationships

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rife, S. C. (2014). Social support seeking in response to stress: Person-level moderators, contextual factors, and the role of online venues [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1405976151

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rife, Sean. Social support seeking in response to stress: Person-level moderators, contextual factors, and the role of online venues. 2014. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1405976151.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rife, Sean. "Social support seeking in response to stress: Person-level moderators, contextual factors, and the role of online venues." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1405976151

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1405976151
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© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Social support seeking in response to stress: Person-level moderators, contextual factors, and the role of online venues by Sean Chandler Rife is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.