Ntontis Evangelos, Fernandes-Jesus Maria, Mao Guanlan, Dines Tom, Kane Jazmin, Karakaya Joshua, Perach Rotem, Cocking Chris, McTague Michael, Schwarz Anna, Semlyen Joanna, Drury John
School of Psychology and Counselling, The Open University, United Kingdom.
School of Education, Languages and Psychology, York St John University, United Kingdom.
Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. 2022 Jun 15;76:103043. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103043. Epub 2022 May 14.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of mutual aid groups were established on social media and operated as platforms through which people could offer or request social support. Considering the importance of Facebook mutual aid groups during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom but also the lack of empirical research regarding the trajectories and types of social support rendered available through the groups, our aims in this paper are threefold; first, to examine the trajectory of social support-related activity during the period between March-December 2020; second, to compare offers and requests of support during the peaks of the first and second waves; third to provide a rich analysis of the types of social support that were offered or requested through the online mutual aid groups. Quantitative findings suggest that online social support activity declined soon after the peak of the first pandemic wave and, at least in Facebook mutual aid groups, did not reach the levels observed during the first wave. Also, the number of offers of support during the first wave was higher compared to offers during the second wave, and similar was the case for requests for support. Additionally, offers for support were higher compared to requests for support during both the first and second waves. Finally, qualitative analysis showed that people used the Facebook mutual aid groups to offer and request various types of practical, emotional, and informational support. Limitations as well as implications of our study are considered.
在新冠疫情爆发之初，社交媒体上成立了数千个互助小组，并作为平台运作，人们可以通过这些平台提供或寻求社会支持。考虑到脸书互助小组在英国新冠疫情早期阶段的重要性，同时也考虑到缺乏关于通过这些小组提供的社会支持轨迹和类型的实证研究，我们在本文中的目标有三个；第一，研究2020年3月至12月期间与社会支持相关活动的轨迹；第二，比较第一波和第二波疫情高峰期支持的提供与请求情况；第三，对通过在线互助小组提供或请求的社会支持类型进行深入分析。定量研究结果表明，在线社会支持活动在第一波疫情高峰后不久就有所下降，而且至少在脸书互助小组中，没有达到第一波疫情期间观察到的水平。此外，第一波疫情期间支持的提供数量高于第二波，支持请求的情况也是如此。此外，在第一波和第二波疫情期间，支持的提供数量都高于支持请求数量。最后，定性分析表明，人们利用脸书互助小组提供和请求各种类型的实际、情感和信息支持。我们考虑了研究的局限性和影响。
