An Internet discussion board for parents of mentally ill young children.
OBJECTIVE
This paper reports parents' use of electronic bulletin board for social support during a pilot study of an Internet intervention.


METHODS
Parents participated for a mean of 13.83 weeks. The convenience sample consisted of six parents. Data were from site access information and parents' postings.


RESULTS
Excluding one mother who checked frequently for messages, mothers have an average of 5.2 postings. Excluding this one mother, the postings/ accesses ratio was greater than 60%. Parents made postings in four categories of "child's illness" having 37 comments and 36 comments for "group maintenance".


CONCLUSIONS
While the study findings cannot be generalized, these results suggest that parents will use electronic discussion boards.
Scharer
Kathleen
K
College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, USA. kathleen.scharer@sc.edu
D000328:Adult; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D002675:Child, Preschool; D034742:Electronic Mail / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology