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Relationships, environment, health and development: The information needs expressed online by young first‐time mothers
Author(s) -
Ruthven Ian,
Buchanan Steven,
Jardine Cara
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.24024
Subject(s) - information needs , situational ethics , user needs , psychology , needs analysis , narrative , needs assessment , special needs , health information , applied psychology , computer science , social psychology , internet privacy , health care , sociology , world wide web , political science , social science , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics education , psychiatry , law
This study investigates the information needs of young first time mothers through a qualitative content analysis of 266 selected posts to a major online discussion group. Our analysis reveals three main categories of need: needs around how to create a positive environment for a child, needs around a mother's relationships and well‐being and needs around child development and health. We demonstrate the similarities of this scheme to needs uncovered in other studies and how our classification of needs is more comprehensive than those in previous studies. A critical distinction in our results is between two types of need presentation, distinguishing between situational and informational needs. Situational needs are narrative descriptions of a problematic situations whereas informational needs are need statements with a clear request. Distinguishing between these two types of needs sheds new light on how information needs develop. We conclude with a discussion on the implication of our results for young mothers and information providers.