Reducing Uncertainty through Virtual Communities: Parents’ Seeking Information for ASD Children in Indonesia

ABSTRACT:Handling children with autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is not easy. Indonesian parents often feel worried and urgently need social support from the environment. Social support becomes important so that they could exchange information and reduce uncertainty about the future of their children. The rise of virtual communities has concrete implications for parents of ASD children in Indonesia. Through virtual communities, especially on social media such as Facebook, they can communicate each other and learn so much information about handling of their ASD children. It breaks distance and time constraints. This study aims to identify information seeking behavior of parents with ASD children through virtual communities. The research used qualitative approach, with virtual ethnography method. Data collection techniques were carried out through participant observation on Facebook LRD Member SuarAutisme by researching 178 uploads and 3,569 comments during August 2018 and in-depth interviews with the admin. The data encoded with NVivo 12 Pro. Result showed that to reduce uncertainty, parents of ASD children exchange information by 1) asking the admin about an issue 2) asking other members about an issue 3) exchanging experiences between members and admin 4) seeking reinforcement and emotional support 5) giving reinforcement and emotional support from member to other member 6) giving information and reinforcement from admin to member.
KEYWORDS: ASD children, Facebook, parents, uncertainty reduction, virtual community