Secondhand Stress: How Stressful Disclosures Affect Psychosocial Wellbeing in Online Graduate Admissions Communities
Drawing on stress crossover theory, we examine how engagement with peer distress during graduate admissions is associated with subsequent psychosocial expression and participation, and whether similar associations extend through downstream interactions.
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Key points
- Online communities provide spaces for individuals navigating stressful life transitions to disclose difficulties and seek peer support.
- Yet encountering others' distress may also have psychosocial implications for community members.
- Our findings highlight how greater distress-related expression can coexist with continued community participation, while distinguishing direct engagement with distress disclosures from subsequent social contact.
- We discuss implications for designing online communities that preserve opportunities for self-disclosure and peer support while remaining attentive to the experiences of those encountering distress-related content.
Sources (1)
- [1]Secondhand Stress: How Stressful Disclosures Affect Psychosocial Wellbeing in Online Graduate Admissions CommunitiesarXiv (AI, ML, NLP, CV, robotics, multi-agent) · Oct 15, 09:20 PM
Drawing on stress crossover theory, we examine how engagement with peer distress during graduate admissions is associated with subsequent psychosocial expression and participation, and whether similar associations extend through downstream interactions.
Online communities provide spaces for individuals navigating stressful life transitions to disclose difficulties and seek peer support.
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