“Help me. I am so alone.” Online emotional self-disclosure in shared coping-processes of children and adolescents on social networking platforms.
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Katrin Döveling
Abstract
Losing a close relative or friend is a traumatic event for anyone, especially for children and adolescents. This article investigates the motives and patterns of children’s and adolescents’ interpersonal online communication on bereavement platforms. A qualitative content analysis of two different youth bereavement platforms (n = 21 threads; 319 postings) illuminates how one common feature is the verbalization and illustration of missing support in the offline world. The substantial usage of social network platforms can be considered an extension of children’s and adolescents’ personal social environment. Furthermore, topics on bereavement platforms ultimately go beyond grief, as children and adolescents also include emotions such as hope, gratitude and cohesiveness. Communication within online bereavement communities thus enables a process known from offline communication as transformation from a loss-oriented to restoration-oriented coping (Stroebe and Schut 2010, p. 277).
©2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The molding of mediatization: The stratified indispensability of media in close relationships
- “Help me. I am so alone.” Online emotional self-disclosure in shared coping-processes of children and adolescents on social networking platforms.
- How to take advantage of tablet computers: Effects of news structure on recall and comprehension
- Has TV advertising lost its effectiveness to other touch points?
- Research in brief
- The sociodemographics of political public deliberation: Measuring deliberative quality in different user groups
- Exploring the role of identification and moral disengagement in the enjoyment of an antihero television series
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The molding of mediatization: The stratified indispensability of media in close relationships
- “Help me. I am so alone.” Online emotional self-disclosure in shared coping-processes of children and adolescents on social networking platforms.
- How to take advantage of tablet computers: Effects of news structure on recall and comprehension
- Has TV advertising lost its effectiveness to other touch points?
- Research in brief
- The sociodemographics of political public deliberation: Measuring deliberative quality in different user groups
- Exploring the role of identification and moral disengagement in the enjoyment of an antihero television series
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
