Stressors Disclosed on Reddit by Caregivers of Older Adults and Social Support Received: Content Analysis

Informal caregiving of an older adult can be a stressful experience. Anonymous online communities, such as Reddit, provide caregivers with an avenue to disclose their stressors and seek support. However, how caregivers disclose their stressors and the effectiveness of these disclosures in eliciting desired social support remain unclear.

Guided by the stress process model and optimal matching theory, this study examined stressors disclosed by informal caregivers on Reddit and the types of social support they received in response.

We conducted a quantitative content analysis of posts and comments in 3 subreddits for informal caregivers of older adults. We identified specific stressors disclosed in the posts, analyzed their co-occurrence, and examined the relationship between these stressors and the presence of different types of social support in corresponding comments.

We collected 737 posts and 3446 comments from 3 subreddits. In the posts, caregivers frequently disclosed care recipients' functional problems (500/737, 67.8%), caregiving relationship strain (279/737, 37.9%), care recipients' emotional problems (195/737, 26.4%), and a scarcity of health and social resources (98/737, 13.3%). Care recipients' functional problems often co-occurred with caregiving relationship strain (χ²₁=37.2; P<.001) and with care recipients' emotional problems (χ²₁=49.0; P<.001). Care recipients' emotional problems also often co-occurred with caregiving relationship strain (χ²₁=87.2; P<.001). Caregiving activity issues (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.89; P=.03) and social role conflict (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.14-2.36; P=.008) were positively associated with informational support received in comments, while care recipients' functional problems (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.32-2.08; P<.001) were positively associated with emotional support. Disclosing role overload (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.03-3.36; P=.04) and social role conflict (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.27-2.77; P=.002) increased the chance of receiving esteem support, while disclosing social restriction (OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.03-5.60; P=.002) increased the likelihood of receiving network support. In addition, we found that nearly no tangible support (3/3446, 0.09%) was provided in response to self-disclosed stressors.

Caregivers frequently disclosed primary and secondary stressors as well as stressors from the social environment, with various primary stressors usually co-occurring in Reddit posts. These stressors varied in their effectiveness in eliciting different types of social support in comments. Managers and moderators of online communities, such as subreddits, are expected to encourage caregivers' sharing of stressors and promote the exchange of social support with their peers. Health professionals and social workers should develop targeted support interventions to meet the needs of informal caregivers of older adults.