Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Building Social Support: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring How College Students Self-Disclose Emotions With Others In Order To Build Social Support, Aimee Brickner

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the process by which college students self-disclose feelings of sadness or depression to create social support. This mixed methods study, which focused primarily on qualitative data, explored the lived experience of participants through an online survey and face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that college students who are experiencing negative feelings grapple with challenges such as identifying someone to share their emotions with and choosing what information to share with others. Findings also demonstrated the importance of social support to college students who are dealing with feelings of sadness and depression in order …