Social support and communicative disenfranchisement: extending the theory of motivated information management within a contested illness context

Abstract

The way that individuals with contested illnesses seek out information about their illness plays a major role in determining their quality of life. This study used the Theory of Motivated Information Management to examine how individuals with contested illnesses deal with uncertainty and the factors that influence the usage of information-seeking strategies and how that influences their quality of life. The results reveal that there is a negative relationship between avoiding information and quality of life for individuals with contested illnesses. The results also demonstrate that for individuals with low perceived social support, there is a negative relationship between direct information-seeking and quality of life whereas for individuals with high perceived social support, this relationship is positive. The results also show that for individuals with low perceived communicative disenfranchisement, there is a positive relationship between direct information-seeking and quality of life, whereas for individuals with high perceived communicative disenfranchisement, this relationship is negative.