Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out which posts were answered in a text-based computer-mediated social support group. Specifically, the present study examined the effects of two variables on support-seeking behaviors: support-seeking strategies and gender. A revised typology of support-seeking strategies originally proposed in the Sensitive Interaction Systems Theory (SIST) model was employed for the study. Data were collected from the PTT psychosis discussion group, the largest BBS in the Chinese-speaking community, for a period of 30 months from February 2004 to July 2006. In general, the results indicated that posts with more asking, less crying and less hinting were answered more than posts with more hinting, more crying and less asking. However, although different support-seeking strategies did affect support-seeking behaviors, gender did not have an impact on which posts were answered.