Journal of Health Psychology 1–11 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359105315581515 hpq.sagepub.com Background Within the last decade, more attention is being paid to the psychosocial (i.e. psychological and social) aspects of the cancer experience of ado- lescent and young adults (AYAs) 15–39 year of age, not only assessing AYA mental health out- comes (e.g. Tai et al., 2012), but also identify- ing AYA support needs (e.g. Goldfarb and Casillas, 2014; Kent et al., 2013). More than 50 percent of AYAs report their needs go unmet for nearly every one of their needs, including a desire for more information about the cancer itself and related health issues (e.g. infertility, nutrition), as well as counseling support (e.g. mental health, sexuality, and intimacy) and family services, including adoption and child care (Goldfarb and Casillas, 2014; Zebrack, 2009; Zebrack et al., 2014). Unmet needs have been linked to distress for AYAs post-diagnosis (Zebrack et al., 2014), thus underscoring the importance of delivering AYAs appropriate and effective support. Understanding how adolescents and young adults with cancer talk about needs in online and face-to-face support groups Charee M Thompson 1 , Brittani Crook 2 , Brad Love 2 , Catherine Fiona Macpherson 3 and Rebecca Johnson 4 Abstract We compared adolescent and young adult cancer patient and survivor language between mediated and face-to-face support communities in order to understand how the use of certain words frame conversations about family, friends, health, work, achievement, and leisure. We analyzed transcripts from an online discussion board (N = 360) and face-to-face support group (N = 569) for adolescent and young adults using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, a word-based computerized text analysis software that counts the frequency of words and word stems. There were significant differences between the online and face-to-face support groups in terms of content (e.g. friends, health) and style words (e.g. verb tense, negative emotion, and cognitive process). Keywords adolescents, cancer, Internet, social support, verbal communication 1 Ohio University, USA 2 The University of Texas at Austin, USA 3 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, USA 4 Mary Bridge Hospital/Multicare, USA Corresponding author: Charee M Thompson, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, 43 West Union, Athens, OH 45701, USA. Email: thompsc3@ohio.edu 581515HPQ 0 0 10.1177/1359105315581515Journal of Health PsychologyThompson et al. research-article 2015 Article by guest on April 28, 2015 hpq.sagepub.com Downloaded from