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Table 1 Types of Social Support

From: The miscarriage circle of care: towards leveraging online spaces for social support

Support type

Examples

Informational

Suggestions/advice: to suggest actions and provide guidance

Referral: referring to another source of information

Teaching: to explain facts or teach skills needed

Emotional

Empathy: to feel sorrow or empathy

Understanding: to understand the situation of the participants

Esteem

Validation: to express agreement with participants perspective on the situation

Compliment: positive comments about participants

Network

Access: to provide access to peers

Friendship: request to make connections or offer to talk

Peer: to be reminded of the availability of existing peers

Tangible

Gift: to give participants something

Direct tasks: to perform a task directly for participants