Toward the future: A conceptual review and call for research and action with online communities

Abstract

The internet allows people to connect with virtually anyone across the globe, building communities based on shared interests, experiences, and goals. Despite the potential for furthering our understanding of communities more generally through exploring them in online contexts, online communities have not generally been a focus of community psychologists. A conceptual, state-of-the-art review of eight major community psychology journals revealed 23 descriptive or empirical articles concerning online communities have been published in the past 20 years. These articles are primarily descriptive and can be organized into four categories: community building and maintenance (seven articles, 30.43%), community support (six articles, 26.09%), norms and attitudes (six articles, 26.09%), and advocacy (four articles, 17.39%). These articles reflect a promising start to understanding how we can utilize the internet to build and enhance communities. They also indicate how much further we have to go, both in understanding online communities and certain concepts regarding community psychology more generally. Community psychologists involved in practice and applied settings specifically may benefit from understanding online communities as they become integral components of advocacy, community organizing, and everyday life.

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“…Stein et al (2019) found a total of 15 articles related to online communities in their informal review of three major community psychology journals. Similarly, Steltenpohl, Reed, and Keys (2020) found only 23 articles of any type published in journals relevant to community psychology between 1997 and 2018 related to online communities. Topics for these 23 papers included the use of online communities for support, community building and maintenance, social advocacy, and the transmission of social norms and attitudes.…”

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“…The first and second authors met to discuss codes until consensus was reached, with the third author acting as an outside auditor. The full quantitative analyses and qualitative codebook are accessible on the Open Science Framework (Steltenpohl, Reed, & Keys, 2017).…”

“…The first and third authors worked with FGC members to create an original online survey, which can be accessed on the Open Science Framework (Steltenpohl & Keys, 2017). In line with Creswell's (2013) description of concurrent embedded strategies, we utilized quantitative data to explore outcomes (e.g.…”

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“…Similarly, since COVID-19, psychologists have increasingly used social media for preventive purposes (Yu, Abbas, Draghici, Negulescu, & Ain, 2022) and are now recognized as valuable resources for improving access to psychological support and to identify at-risk individuals early (Naslund, Bondre, Torous, & Aschbrenner, 2020). In fact, a recent review described how social can be considered an online community through which social networks can be created and support can be received and given among peers and by professionals (Steltenpohl, Reed, & Keys, 2020). Online social support is provided as an exchange of information and emotional support; it is predominantly provided by peers and not by psychology professionals who seem to make little use of this channel (Naslund et al, 2020).…”