#ISOLATEDNOTALONE DURING COVID-19: EXTENDING THE SITUATIONAL THEORY OF PROBLEM SOLVING TO ONLINE ABUSE INTERVENTION CAMPAIGNS

Abstract

Domestic abuse has long been regarded as a significant public health issue, but intimate partner violence cases increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some reporters to label it as “an opportunistic infection.” The United Nations attributed the increase in domestic abuse to COVID-19 quarantines and shelter-in-place orders, which forced victims to remain trapped in their homes with their abusers. Cosmetics brand, Avon, which has a history of responding to women’s health issues, launched the #IsolatedNotAlone abuse intervention campaign on its social media platforms. The campaign sought to educate the public about the ubiquitousness of domestic abuse and inform victims about available intervention resources. The #IsolatedNotAlone campaign was most active during the spring and summer months of 2020. During that time, the campaign reached an estimated 2.9 million social media users and provided supportive services to nearly 16,000 domestic abuse survivors. Although the campaign was a success, it didn’t reach near as many social media users as other abuse-related initiatives, like the #MeToo movement, which achieved 12 million reposts within its first 24 hours.This dissertation explores the usefulness of the Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) for understanding how publics organize and react to #IsolatedNotAlone and similar abuse intervention campaigns. STOPS is commonly used to examine public reactions to organizational crises, but this dissertation took an alternative approach and examined its applications for health communication. The research questions ask how situational antecedents, as outlined in STOPS, motivate social media users to learn more about domestic abuse, and how situational motivations and referent criteria influence the communicative actions of social media users. Additionally, the research questions ask how communicative behaviors influence online social support group formation and organization. The sample in this research included ethnically diverse men, women, and non-binary participants who identified as white, Black, Native American, Asian, and Hispanic. I chose to keep the sample demographics wide because I wanted to better understand how diverse groups experience and understand domestic abuse and domestic abuse intervention messages, and their motivations for communicating or not communicating about abuse. Twenty-eight social media users participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews via telephone or Zoom. The data suggests social media users with alike situational antecedents are similarly motivated to communicate about domestic abuse interventions unless they individually recognize significant constraints. Individuals with strong problem recognition and involvement recognition display a wider range of communicative actions than those with low problem recognition and involvement recognition. Based on the findings, this study produces practical implications for abuse intervention message design and distribution. The findings also demonstrate that STOPS has some utility for understanding public response to health intervention messages, though the framework may require adaptation for use in future health communication initiatives. The data suggest that referent criteria, time, and power have a larger role in health communication and influence audience members’ problem recognition, involvement recognition, and communicative actions.