Resilience building discourse in online spaces: A comparative analysis of user statements following the disclosure of a break in alcohol abstinence.

This study investigates statements made by individuals who either disclose having experienced a break in alcohol abstinence or provide a first-level response to such disclosures. An average month of public Reddit data were examined, resulting in 193 posts and 1238 responses. Post statements were binarily considered according to eight a priori categories, primarily guided by the communication resilience process scale (CRPS; Wilson et al., 2021). Coded response posts were collapsed into sets corresponding to initial posts, facilitating the saturation comparison of resilience building statements between initial and response posts. Results indicate that responses were more resilience-heavy than initial posts, suggesting users looking to disclose an abstinence break have a good chance of experiencing resilience building responses. Notably, the top three resilience building categories identified in this study were identical for initial and response posts. Discussion, implications, and future research directions regarding communicating resilience and resilience building discourse follow.