Losing Weight Together Online: How People Perceive Social Support in Online Weight Loss Communities

Abstract

Questioning the kind of social support that community members perceive through participation in an online weight loss community, this paper focused on the precedent elements of social support at both individual and community levels. Based on network theory, individualsparticipation and social relations in egocentric networks as well as communities characteristics were discussed as the prerequisites of four types of perceived social support: emotional, appraisal, informational and instrumental supports. As a result of a survey (N=498), it was found that the four types of social support are differentiated in accordance with each of the independent variables. Also individual participation was found to be the most powerful motivator of perceiving any kind of social support, and the level community activeness is the only predicting factor of emotional support among the four types of perceived social supports. In summary it was revealed that the effect of variables on social support at the community level is relatively smaller than the effect of variables at the individual level. Nevertheless, communities' structural characteristics are influential to individuals' perception which can be interpreted as the notion that online communities exist with identities as 'a group' in the perception of the community members, and beyond its function as just a platform.