title: The Effects of Expressing Religious Support Online for Breast Cancer Patients.
abstract: The growth of online support groups has led to an expression effects paradigm within the health communication literature. Although religious support expression is characterized as a typical subdimension of emotional support, we argue that in the context of a life-threatening illness, the inclusion of a religious component creates a unique communication process. Using data from an online group for women with breast cancer, we test a theoretical expression effects model. Results demonstrate that for breast cancer patients, religious support expression has distinct effects from general emotional support messages, which highlights the need to further theorize expression effects along these lines.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Advertising , Texas Tech University.
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mclaughlin
authors.affiliation: b School of Journalism and Mass Communication , University of Madison-Wisconsin.
authors.forename: JungHwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: c Survey & Health Policy Research Center , Dongguck University.
authors.forename: Woohyun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: d Life Sciences Communication , University of Madison-Wisconsin.
authors.forename: Bret
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: b School of Journalism and Mass Communication , University of Madison-Wisconsin.
authors.forename: Soo Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: b School of Journalism and Mass Communication , University of Madison-Wisconsin.
authors.forename: Dhavan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: e Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , University of Madison-Wisconsin.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gustafson
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D012067:Religion; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000458:organization & administration*