Finding Understanding and Support: Navigating Online Communities to Share and Connect at the intersection of Abuse and Foster Care Experiences

TL;DR

This study analyzes how foster care and abuse communities on Reddit facilitate support and understanding through boundary crossing users, highlighting their significant role and proposing design improvements for better community matching.

Contribution

It introduces a mixed methods analysis of Reddit foster care and abuse communities, revealing the impact of boundary crossing users and offering design recommendations for trauma support.

Findings

Boundary crossing users contribute heavily to both communities.

Crossing users receive higher engagement scores and more replies.

Boundary crossing users play key roles in community support and understanding.

Abstract

Many children in foster care experience trauma that is rooted in unstable family relationships. Other members of the foster care system like foster parents and social workers face secondary trauma. Drawing on 10 years of Reddit data, we used a mixed methods approach to analyze how different members of the foster care system find support and similar experiences at the intersection of two Reddit communities - foster care, and abuse. Users who cross this boundary focus on trauma experiences specific to different roles in foster care. While representing a small number of users, boundary crossing users contribute heavily to both communities, and, compared to matching users, receive higher scores and more replies. We explore the roles boundary crossing users have both in the online community and in the context of foster care. Finally, we present design recommendations that would support trauma survivors find communities more suited to their personal experiences.