Explicit and Implicit Help-Seeking in Navigating Support Needs on Social Media: A Case Study of Domestic Violence Community

Abstract

Social media platforms offer a supportive environment for help-seeking and collaborative problem-solving. Despite extensive research on help-seeking behavior, it has largely overlooked the role of explicitness-implicitness in the request for help, particularly to meet users’ support needs. This study aims to address this gap by investigating how needs for informational support versus emotional support are associated with explicit versus implicit help-seeking behavior in social media self-disclosure. We further examine how these behaviors impact community agreement (i.e., peers’ acknowledgement and supportive feedback). We propose and test hypotheses using data collected from representative social media communities focused on domestic violence, and the findings support most of our hypotheses. This work contributes to online help-seeking theory, including work on motivational interviewing, and provides practical insights for fostering community support.