JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience minority stress, especially when they lack social support. SGM young adults may turn to social media to find a supportive community. Social media use may reduce isolation and stigma; however, in excess, social media use may harm well-being.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to examine associations between social media use, SGM-related stigma, social support, and depressive symptoms in SGM young adults.

Methods:

Participants were SGM young adult regular (4+ days per week) social media users (N=302) enrolled in Facebook smoking cessation interventions. As part of a baseline assessment, participants self-reported problematic social media use (characterized by salience, tolerance, and withdrawal-like experiences; adapted from the Facebook Addiction Scale), hours of social media use per week, internalized SGM stigma, perceived social support, and depressive symptoms. Pearson’s correlations tested bivariate associations between problematic social media use, hours of social media use, internalized SGM stigma, perceived social support, and depressive symptoms. Multiple linear regression examined associations between the aforementioned variables and problematic social media use, adjusting for gender identity.

Results:

A total of 302 SGM young adults were included in analyses (218 [72.2%] assigned female at birth, 62.3% non-Hispanic White, M age = 21.9 [SD = 2.2]). The sexual identity of the sample was 59.3% bisexual and/or pansexual, 17.2% gay, 16.9% lesbian, and 6.6% other. Gender identity was 61.3% cisgender, 24.2% genderqueer, fluid, non-binary, or other, and 14.6% transgender. Problematic social media use averaged 2.53 (SD = .94) on a 5-point scale, with a median of 17 hours of social media use per week (approximately 2.5 hours per day). In bivariate analyses, problematic social media use was significantly associated with greater internalized SGM stigma (r = .22, p < .001), less perceived social support (r = -.16, p = .007), and greater depressive symptoms (r = .22, p < .001). Greater time spent using social media also was significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms (r = .15, p = .009); however, time spent on social media was not associated with internalized SGM stigma (r=-.05, p=.411) or social support (r=.02, p=.775). Internalized SGM stigma remained significantly associated with problematic social media use in an adjusted multiple linear regression analysis (β =.20, t = 3.57, p < .001). Depressive symptoms remained marginally significantly associated with problematic social media use (β =.11, t = 1.94, p = .05).

Conclusions:

Taken together, problematic social media use among SGM young adults was associated with negative psychological experiences, including internalized stigma, low social support, and depressive symptoms. Social media, while accessible, may not provide a simple solution to addressing isolation, experienced stigma, and depression in SGM young adults.