Cleland, Kathleen F. (2021) Looking for Support in All the Wrong Places: Belongingness on a Suicide Forum. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Survivors of a suicide attempt are at elevated risk of taking their own lives and often experience difficulty accessing formal mental health support at critical times. Many turn to online sites and forums for support but how support needs are met in such informal spaces has not been a focus of investigation. Using a discursive psychology approach and conversation analysis, a data corpus of 27 forum threads from the subreddit r/SuicideWatch, initiated by suicide attempt survivors, was examined for how support is requested, given, and receipted. Findings revealed that initiating posters did not request support, thus support was rarely given and receipted. Rather than support being a focus of this subreddit space, members appear to be performing the social action of belonging. This action seems to be recognisable in the way posters talk about their experiences as an insider experience. Through the way each member comes into the interaction, and how the initial poster responds, members appear to be doing belonging by talking with each other. This is done within a particular understanding of lived experience that is being shared live, displayed by each member, of themselves, for others. Whilst findings come from a single forum, if they are found in other forums, there is potential for findings to broaden our understanding of belongingness’s place in suicidal behaviours, moving from a focus on belonging to something or someone, to belonging within experiences.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Andrea Lamont-Mills |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jul 2025 04:19 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2025 04:19 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | suicide attempt ; support ; online forums ; discursive psychology ; belonging |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52211 |
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