Diversity of support network refers to the variety of relational ties people have in their social support networks. Network diversity has been shown to positively associate with one’s received social support. Online support groups are important sources that cancer patients seek support from. Relatively less attention has been paid to examining the composition and diversity of online support networks. This study aims to: (1) understand the composition of online support networks in terms of major types of relational ties people seek support from, (2) examine the relationship between diversity of online support network and received social support from such network, and (3) investigate how offline network resources may moderate the relationship between participation in online support groups and received social support from online networks. We recruited participants from two large online cancer support communities to complete an online survey. A total of 386 participants were included in the study. The results show that people’s online support relational ties contain several dimensions. Online diversity and online received social support are positively related. A moderating effect was found of offline diversity on the relationship of online media use and the received online social support. The result of the hierarchical regression is aligned with the social compensation theory. Online diversity of support network is an important concept that deserves more attention. It not only indicates the potential social support resources in the online network but also highly relates to one’s offline network and the overall social support.
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