What is Network Support? Computational Insights from Communicated Tensions Between Friends and Romantic Partners

Network support remains an underexplored type of social support. We address this gap by exploring how people tell personal stories about challenges in network support processes. Specifically, we focus on the “friend problems”, in which a romantic relationship is hindered by friends. Mixed-methods analyses of 900 Reddit posts revealed three major themes: challenges in gaining support from a partner’s friends, in intermediating between one’s partner and friends, and in approving a friend’s relationship; significant differences in gender and couple type (i.e., different-sex vs. same-sex) were found. Linguistic and qualitative analysis revealed three narrative roles: the rejected newcomers, torn middlepersons, and judgmental friends. The findings show network support is a contested communicative process of managing exclusion, negotiating power, and sustaining relational legitimacy.