2002 Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 15-30
Online groups in which people who share interests and/or problems participate are expanding. The purpose of this article is to review researches on online groups from the point of view of mutual-aid among peers and intervention by human service professionals. The online groups are divided into two categories, one is mutual-aid online groups and the other is online support groups. It has been emphasized that many mutual-aid online groups in which human service professionals don’t play directive role work as a new form of self-help resource. In studies of online intervention by the professionals including online support groups, some positive effects have been reported. However, both forms of research don’t contain enough data and their effectiveness has to be confirmed through further study. In these additional studies attention must be paid to not only the positive side but also the negative side of computer-network mediated “help.”
