A Comparative Analysis of Peer Support in Forum-based and Chat-based Mental Health Communities: Technical-Structural-Functional Model of Social Support

TL;DR

This study compares forum-based and chat-based mental health communities, revealing how their technical structures influence the types of social support provided, with implications for designing effective online support platforms.

Contribution

Introduces a technical-structural-functional model of social support and systematically compares communication patterns in different online mental health communities.

Findings

Forums foster more informational and emotional support

Chats promote greater companionship among users

Network structure explains support type differences

Abstract

Online support communities have become vital spaces offering varied forms of support to individuals facing mental health challenges. Despite the proliferation of platforms with distinct technical structures, little is known about how these features shape support dynamics and the socio-technical mechanisms at play. This study introduces a technical-structural-functional model of social support and systematically compares communication network structures and support types in 20 forum-based and 20 chat-based mental health communities. Using supervised machine learning and social network analysis, we find that forum-based communities foster more informational and emotional support, whereas chat-based communities promote greater companionship. These patterns were partially explained by network structure: higher in-degree centralization in forums accounted for the prevalence of informational support, while decentralized reply patterns in chat groups accounted for more companionship. These findings extend the structural-functional model of support to online contexts and provide actionable guidance for designing support communities that align technical structures with users' support needs.