Coping, Community and Fighting Stereotypes: An Exploration of Multidimensional Social Capital in Personal Blogs Discussing Mental Illness.

Social capital has been identified as one of the ways in which mental health concerns may be mitigated - by ensuring that systems are in place at the micro (cognitive), meso (social interaction), and macro (institutional) levels to support individuals as they seek assistance with and recovery from mental health concerns. One area that deserves further research, however, is how social capital is created communicatively online for these purposes. This study outlines the creation of social capital through interviews with five personal bloggers, analysis of six additional personal blogs with mental health content, and analysis of 878 reader comments to blog posts. Social capital creation is found in three levels, with: (1) coping with mental illness present at the cognitive level, (2) fostering supportive community at the social interaction level, and (3) fighting against stereotypes at the institutional level.