Social capital and social support on the web: the case of an internet mother site

Authors: Drentea, Patricia¹; Moren-Cross, Jennifer L.²

Source: Sociology of Health & Illness, Volume 27, Number 7, November 2005 , pp. 920-943(24)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

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Abstract:

Do virtual communities in cyberspace foster social capital and social support? Using participant observation and discourse analysis, we examine a mothering board on a parent's website and investigate whether social capital was present, and if so, how it was developed and used. We find three main types of communication emerge from our analysis: emotional support, instrumental support – both formal and informal, and community building/protection, all of which contribute to the creation and maintenance of social capital. Additionally, using sampling with replacement, we created a final data set of 180 mothers and report descriptive statistics to identify characteristics of those on the board.

Keywords: social capital; social support; mothers; internet

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2005.00464.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Sociology, University of Alabama-Birmingham 2: Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC

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