The Dark Side of Online Support Groups: Conflictual Experiences in Single-Child Parents’ Facebook Groups

Abstract

This study draws on intersectionality and reproductive identity as conceptual frameworks to investigate the motivation and experience of Israeli voluntary single-child parents in online support groups (OSGs) for the parents of only children. A qualitative analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews revealed that the social stigma attached to having one child was a significant factor in their decision to join an OSG for all single-child parents. However, once becoming members of the group, voluntary single-child parents experienced conflictual encounters with their involuntary counterparts and felt stigmatized in the OSG as well. This led them to create their own OSG exclusively for voluntary single-child parents. The interviewees coped with their conflictual OSG membership experience by “cruising” between the two OSGs in a search for social support. Membership in both groups enabled them to gain support for the two distinct components of their reproductive identity: reproductive status; and reproductive decision-making. The findings extend the conceptual framework of intersectionality to OSG research, demonstrating how the interplay between multiple stigmatized identities shapes OSG options, choices, and experiences.