| The ecological nested model of survivor response to intimate partner violence (IPV) suggests that seeking and receiving informal social support is a common reaction to victimization that yet remains an unaddressed aspect of human service agency responses to IPV victimization. This qualitative, multicase study describes the types and quantities of informal social support, and the presence of other activities--including human service agency interactions with survivors--represented in message content generated by users of two different public online IPV forums frequented by IPV survivors. Thematic content analysis of 1,631 user-created messages collected from the PrisonTalk domestic violence forum and the Facebook fan page operated by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence disclosed that participants engaged in informal social support by seeking help, building community, sharing personal stories, providing information, and expressing emotional concern for others. Content analysis also revealed instances of stalking and harassment, sharing of misinformation, overly personal communications, and the enforcement of subcultural behavioral norms in the forums. Human service agency interactions were observed in the forums as well, but these did not seem to reflect an understanding of how survivors use online environments to seek help. This study's implications for positive social change include extending theoretical understanding of IPV survivor social support to online environments, which can, in turn, influence how human-service agencies respond to survivors. Governmental and nongovernmental human-service agencies can increase the contextual relevance of service provision to survivors by training staff to account for the influences introduced by survivor participation in online social support activities. |
