To grieve or not to grieve (online)? Interactions with deceased Facebook friends
Autor: | Rachael Sharman, Jessica Blower |
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Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
Adult
Male 050103 clinical psychology media_common.quotation_subject Friends Terror management theory Anxiety 03 medical and health sciences Social support 0302 clinical medicine Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Completion rate Developmental and Educational Psychology medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences media_common 05 social sciences Social Support medicine.disease 030227 psychiatry Clinical Psychology Death anxiety Survey data collection Female Grief medicine.symptom Psychology Social Media Clinical psychology |
Zdroj: | Death Studies. 45:167-181 |
ISSN: | 1091-7683 0748-1187 |
Popis: | Besides seeking social support, connecting with bereaved others, and maintaining relationships with the deceased, bereaved Facebook users may express their grief on Facebook to reduce their death anxiety. Notably, research has not yet explored the psychological outcomes of expressing grief on Facebook. This study undertook quantitative analysis of survey data from an initial community sample of 409 bereaved Facebook users (77.8% survey completion rate, n = 312; Mage = 34.46, SD = 12.38; 90% women) to ascertain whether expressions of grief on Facebook had negative psychological outcomes, and whether terror management theory (TMT) provided an appropriate lens for understanding Facebook grief expressions (FBGE). The aims of this study were three-fold: to clarify rates at which Facebook profiles of deceased users are deactivated, memorialized, unchanged, or managed; frequency and types of FBGE; and prevalence of/visitation to commemorative groups. Results-though insufficient to support TMT as an explanatory theoretical framework for FBGE-indicated that individuals who participated in FBGE reported higher anxiety and stress compared to bereaved individuals who did not express their grief on Facebook. Results provide a useful starting point for future research regarding online grieving behaviors and psychological wellbeing. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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