Cancer content and social media platform influence young adult cancer caregivers' social support on social media

To determine how social media platform and cancer content is associated with the presence of social support in responses to young adult cancer caregivers' (YACC) posts. We retrospectively collected YACC's Facebook and/or Instagram posts and all responses from the first six months of caregi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosocial oncology 2022-11, Vol.40 (6), p.808-815
Main Authors: Warner, Echo L., Wilson, Andrew, Ellington, Lee, Sun, Ye, Cloyes, Kristin G., Waters, Austin R., Nelson, Taylor, Kirchhoff, Anne C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cancer
cancer information
caregiver
Caregivers
Caregiving
Emotional support
Mass media
Social media
Social networks
Social response
Social support
Young adults
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Summary:To determine how social media platform and cancer content is associated with the presence of social support in responses to young adult cancer caregivers' (YACC) posts. We retrospectively collected YACC's Facebook and/or Instagram posts and all responses from the first six months of caregiving. Eligible YACC were 18-39, caring for a cancer patient diagnosed 6 months-5 years prior, spoke English, and used social media weekly. Social media posts and responses were manually coded for five social support types, then transformed to depict the proportion of responses per post representing each type of support. Using mixed-effects models, we compared the distributions of responses with social support types by platform (Facebook vs. Instagram) and cancer content (no vs. yes). More responses contained emotional support on Instagram than Facebook (B = 0.25, Standard Error (SE)=0.09, p = 0.007). More responses with cancer content contained ­validation support (B = 0.20, SE = 0.07, p = 0.002), but fewer contained emotional (B=-0.17, SE = 0.07, p = 0.02) and instrumental support (B=-0.06, SE = 0.02, p = 0.001) than posts without cancer content. Studying the responsiveness of social media followers by platform and cancer content provides a foundation for intervention development. Emphasizing the suitability of different social media platforms for particular support seeking behaviors is essential.
ISSN:0734-7332
1540-7586
DOI:10.1080/07347332.2021.1968987