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Computers in Human Behavior 65 (2016) 201e209

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Computers in Human Behavior

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A tool for help or harm? How associations between social networking use, social support, and mental health differ for sexual minority and heterosexual youth

Peter J.D. Ceglarek a, *, L. Monique Ward b

a Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities (SexLab), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States b Psychology Department, University of Michigan, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history: Received 5 May 2016 Received in revised form 23 June 2016 Accepted 23 July 2016 Available online 30 August 2016

Keywords: Sexual minority Youth Social networking sites Mental health Social support Sexual identity Identity development

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (P.J.D. Ceglar

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.051 0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t

Although use of social networking sites has been linked to both positive and negative changes in young people's mental health, it is likely that these contributions may vary based on users' motivations and social status. For sexual minority youth, for example, the sites could provide means for social support and connections with like-minded others. Accordingly, our study sought to examine the relations between sexual minority youth's social networking site use and their social support, sexual identity strength, and mental health. We conducted an online survey, sampling 146 sexual minority youth respondents (M ¼ 21 years; SD ¼ 2.87 years) and 477 heterosexual youth respondents (M ¼ 20 years; SD ¼ 2.76 years). Results indicated that although both sexual minority and heterosexual youth use social networking sites at equal rates, sexual minority youth indicated that they use sites more for identity development and social communication. Moreover, using sites for general identity expression or exploration predicted negative mental health outcomes, whereas using sites specifically for sexual identity development predicted positive mental health outcomes. These results provide greater insight into how social networking sites may impact the mental health of marginalized groups, and provide a framework for understanding differences in social networking site use by sexuality.

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

It is widely recognized that social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter have become one of the most pop- ular domains online, especially for young people, and serve numerous functions in their lives. Findings indicate that SNS are primarily used for communication with close friends and for maintenance of these relationships (Clarke, 2009; Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009). Yet, SNS have also become an in- tegral part of youth's identity formation, with data indicating that they use these sites to explore, develop, and evolve their social identity through self-presentation and social interactions (Barker, 2012; Clarke, 2009; Cover, 2012; Nabeth, 2009). Social Identity Theory posits that having the opportunity to shape and refine one's identity based on self-presentation and social interaction with similar others allows for positive psychological development and well-being (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). It has been demonstrated that youth who engage in self-presentation on Facebook report better

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subjective well-being, and in some cases, greater social support, as well (Kim & Lee, 2011). Therefore, it is believed that social networking sites could provide benefits to self-esteem and positive self-views, and could give youth an opportunity to develop a sense of belonging with others who have similar social identities (Deters & Mehl, 2012; Moreno & Kolb, 2012; Vitak & Ellison, 2012).

However, some of the same studies have indicated that SNS may negatively impact youth's mental healthdspecifically as they possibly expose youth to risky material, privacy violations, cyber- bullying, unsafe “sexting” behaviors, and disingenuous interactions (Moreno & Kolb, 2012; Vitak & Ellison, 2012). Davila et al. (2012) found that although frequency of Facebook use had no relation to depression, the quality of interactions on Facebook affected mental health. Although the authors found that negative interactions were associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms, they also found that more positive interactions were related to fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, a recent longitudinal study (Teppers, Luyckx, Klimstra, & Goossens, 2013) found that partici- pants' motives for Facebook use were the driving force behind these psychosocial outcomes.

P.J.D. Ceglarek, L.M. Ward / Computers in Human Behavior 65 (2016) 201e209202

Building on this quality of interaction framework, more recent literature has indicated that social comparison may be the primary driving force behind observed negative mental health outcomes among youth using SNS. Researchers have found that those who are high in their tendency to engage in social comparison not only tend to use Facebook more than other youth, but also have poorer self- perceptions, lower self-esteem, and more negative affect (Vogel, Rose, Okdie, Eckles, & Franz, 2015). Further research suggests that the proposed relation between social comparison and negative outcomes is mediated by ruminationdwith youth who engage in negative social comparison on Facebook being more likely to ruminate and subsequently to experience depressive symptoms (Feinstein et al., 2013). Taken together, these findings suggest that social comparison is the primary driver behind negative mental health outcomes of SNS use.

Social comparison may also explain other results that indicate that passive SNS use is a possible predictor of negative mental health. Researchers have experimentally found that passive Face- book use (i.e., not actively posting to your profile or interacting with others, but engaging in behavior such as browsing profiles and pictures) predicts decreases in affective well-being over time by increasing users' envy (Verduyn et al., 2015). Other studies demonstrate that passive Facebook use predicts social anxiety symptoms, but is mediated by “brooding” (Shaw, Timpano, Tran, & Joormann, 2015). These constructs of “envy” and “brooding” may be pointing to the same mechanisms of negative, upward social comparison and rumination, respectively, seen in other studies. In fact, Tandoc, Ferrucci, and Duffy (2015) found that “surveillance use” (i.e., passive use) of Facebook increases college students' depressive symptom levels, via the mechanism of increasing envy, paralleling the pathway described by Feinstein et al. (2013).

In summary, the current literature on SNS and youth seems to indicate that SNS use can have positive implications for youth's mental health when used to develop their social identity or foster positive social interaction, yet it can have detrimental effects when SNS are passively used for social comparison. Building from these premises, two limitations of the literature, so far, are that (1) identity development has not been directly tested as a predictor of mental health outcomes, and that (2) there has been little research testing these relations among youth of marginalized social identi- ties. In particular, a majority of the current studies on SNS use and mental health outcomes have looked at primarily or exclusively heterosexual populations; as such, little is known about these processes for sexual minority youth.

1. Social media and sexual minority youth

Sexual minority youth can be defined as adolescents and young adults who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, sexually queer or fluid, or otherwise do not identify as heterosexual. In general, it is known that sexual minority youth (gay and bisexual males, in particular) use the Internet to increase their self-awareness regarding their sexuality, learn about gay community life, communicate and meet with other gay or bisexual people, find acceptance with their sexual identity, and facilitate coming out (Harper, Serrano, Bruce, & Bauermeister, 2015). Specifically regarding SNS, research indicates that sexual minority youth use sites to find events and services relevant to their community, friends, or potential partners, yet their degree of use is limited by their degree of “outness” (DeHaan, Kuper, Magee, Bigelow, & Mustanski, 2012). For gay and bisexual male youth of racial minority ethnic identities, ethnic-specific SNS are used for finding social support and affirmation (Harper, Serrano, et al., 2015). Other studies have indicated that much of modern use of SNS among gay and bisexual men is for hookups and datingd- specifically via use of gay social networking dating applications,

such as Grindr (Grov, Breslow, Newcomb, Rosenberger, & Bauermeister, 2014). Despite many studies pointing out that sex- ual minority youth continually use the Internet as a tool for meeting others and learning about their sexuality and health (Grov et al., 2014; Pingel, Bauermeister, Johns, Eisenberg, & Leslie- Santana, 2013), other researchers have pointed out that there is a significant gap in the amount of research on sexual minority youth's SNS use and its impact (Allison et al., 2012; Pedrana et al., 2013). We believe that current research has yet to investigate the specific mental health outcomes of sexual minority youth's SNS use.

To address these gaps, the current study investigates the re- lations between sexual minority youth's social networking site uses and behaviors, the strength of their developed sexual identity, their perceived levels of social support, and their overall mental health. We chose to investigate mental health among sexual minority versus heterosexual youth because of the mental health inequity of diagnosed disorders between the two populations (Mustanski, Garofalo, & Emerson, 2010). Specifically, sexual minority youth are at least twice as likely as heterosexual youth to attempt suicide (Russell & Joyner, 2001), and sexual minority youth, particularly those who experience homophobic harassment, are more likely to experience self-reported depressive feelings (Birkett, Espelage, & Koenig, 2009). Can social media be a tool for help?

2. Determinants of sexual minority youth's mental health

Analyses of the mental health disparities experienced between sexual minority and heterosexual youth document several impor- tant determinants of sexual minority youth's mental health out- comes. One factor is sexual minority youth's amount of social support. In fact, research has identified social support as the pri- mary protective factor against negative mental health outcomes for sexual minority youth (Hatzenbuehler, 2011). A second factor noted to protect sexual minority youth's mental health is resilience. Resilience is generally defined as patterns of positive adaptation to significant situations of risk (Masten, Herbers, & Reed, 2009). Studies have shown that resilience is directly related to sexual minority youth's sense of positive LGB identity (i.e., comfortably, openly, and even proudly identifying as a sexual minority individ- ual), and that this strong sense of identity can help mitigate the likelihood of experiencing negative mental health outcomes (Bruce, Harper, & Bauermeister, 2015; Harper, Wade, Onyango, Abuor, Bauermeister, Odero, & Bailey, 2015). Additionally, internalized homonegativitydoften regarded as one of the most influential opposing factors to well-developed LGB identitydis related to greater internalization of mental health problems, particularly depressive and anxiety symptoms (Newcomb & Mustanski, 2010).

These findings are in-line with both research and theory con- cerning marginalized identities. Studies show that Black youth with a strong sense of ethnic identity experience better mental health outcomes than those with a less-developed ethnic identity, both on- and offline (Tynes, Uma~Na-Taylor, Rose, & Lin, 2012). Further- more, Social Identity Theory argues that having a well-developed social identity promotes self-esteem, self-image, and overall psy- chological well-being (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). However, there ap- pears to be an extreme lack of literature investigating whether or not sexual minority youth are using social networking sites to develop their sense of sexual identity, and whether this use has possible implications for their mental health.

Our current study seeks to address this gap by conducting a set of exploratory comparative analyses of heterosexual versus sexual minority youth's SNS use for identity development and its impli- cations for their mental health. Given the literature on heterosexual youth's identity development online, we believe that sexual

P.J.D. Ceglarek, L.M. Ward / Computers in Human Behavior 65 (2016) 201e209 203

minority youth may have a similar experience, which could in-turn affect their mental health. Specifically, we use the Media Practice Model as our framework for examining youth's identity via SNS.

3. Theoretical framework and study aims

The Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) states that youth who are developing their identity actively seek out media that relate to aspects of their identity (e.g., their sexuality). This selective use of media results in specialized interactions that heighten, diminish, or change certain aspects of the relevant dimension of their identity. From there, youth act on these newly formed pieces of their identity with their peers, and based on the explicit and implicit social feedback they receive, they either fully incorporate or remove that piece into their continually developing identity. Youth's refined identity then reinitiates the selective usage cycle of media interactions (Steele & Brown, 1995). Given the evi- dence of the importance of social support and strength of LGB identity, we use the Media Practice Model to guide our study, examining both social support and LGB identity among sexual minority youth, in online SNS media settings, to investigate the potential contributions of each to mental health. Using this framework, we would expect that sexual minority youth would selectively use SNS as a vehicle to seek interactions, information, and modes of expression related to their sexual identity, especially given the stigmatization many youth face in their offline life while expressing their identities (Russell & Fish, 2016). Engaging in these interactions and uses online would, according to the Media Practice Model, reinforce the aspects central to their sexual identity as a sexual minority individual. From here, their use of SNS would become more refined, and further selective of spaces, interactions, and uses related to their sexual identity.

Therefore, we sought to test two hypotheses. First, due to the importance of identity development and exploration for youth on- and offline, we hypothesized that using social networking sites for the uses of identity exploration (i.e., searching for information on one's identity, learning about one's identity through communica- tion or knowledge acquisition) and identity expression (i.e., actively demonstrating aspects of one's identity through labels, in- teractions, and community membership) would each relate to better mental health outcomes for both heterosexual and sexual minority youth, controlling for social support (H1).

Second, based on the Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) framework, we believed that many youth who identify as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual minority identity would selectively use SNS to interact with the LGBQ community, and apply their interactions to their further identity development. Given the work done on marginalized identity (Tynes, Uma~Na- Taylor, et al., 2012), we hypothesized that for sexual minority youth, those who are using SNS to specifically develop their sexual identity would experience better mental health outcomes than those who are using SNS for more general purposes (H2).

4. Method

4.1. Participants

Eight-hundred-and-seventy-six people consented to take our survey. After excluding 34 participants who were over 24 years old, and then 272 participants who were missing data on any of our key study variables related to mental health, social support, or social networking site use, our final analytic sample consisted of 570 youth ages 18e24. Excluded individuals may not have completed the survey due to lack of motivation, as compensation was not guaranteed to all participants, or because they may have objected

to the content. Our included respondents identified as exclusively homosexual (n ¼ 39, 6.8%), predominately homosexual (n ¼ 29, 5.1%), bisexual (n ¼ 31, 5.4%), predominately heterosexual (n ¼ 77, 13.5%), exclusively heterosexual (n ¼ 369, 64.7%), not sure (n ¼ 4, 0.7%), or other (n ¼ 21, 3.7%). Sexual minorities were considered those who indicated an identity other than predominately or exclusively heterosexual. This gave us a sample size of 124 sexual minority participants (M ¼ 20.23 years; SD ¼ 1.68 years). Within this sub-sample, 81 identified as female (65.3%), 41 identified as male (33.1%), and 2 identified as “other” (1.6%). Eighty-six sexual minority participants identified as white or Caucasian (69.4%), 6 identified as black or African American (4.8%), 7 identified as His- panic (5.6%), 12 (9.7%) identified as Asian/South Asian/Asian- American, 3 identified as Native American (2.4%), 7 identified as multi-racial (5.6%), and 3 did not disclose their ethnic identity (2.4%).

The full sample also included 446 heterosexual participants (M ¼ 19.73; SD ¼ 1.37 years). Within this group, 276 identified as female (61.9%), 169 identified as male (37.9%), and 1 identified as “other” (0.2%). Three-hundred-and-twenty-nine identified as white or Caucasian (73.8%), 8 identified as black or African American (1.8%), 16 identified as Hispanic (3.6%), 72 (16.1%) identified as Asian/South Asian/Asian-American, 1 identified as Native American (0.2%), 10 identified as multi-racial (2.2%), and 10 did not disclose their ethnic identity (2.2%).

4.2. Procedure

Data come from an online survey conducted in 2013. To be eligible for participation, people had to be between the ages of 18 and 24, and could be of any sexual identitydalthough those of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other same-sex attraction (LGB) identities represented the sampling population of interest. Participants were recruited via reaching out to various LGBTQ support groups and organizations (throughout the country, but primarily in the state of Michigan), as well via the authors' home university's Office of Registrar. LGBTQ groups contacted were asked to forward an email explaining the purpose of our study to people on their organiza- tions' listserv. A flyer was sent to the organizations, as well, if they preferred to post that in their centers. A similar email was sent out to a random sampling of 4004 undergraduates at the university via the Office of Registrar. The email and flyer included a link to the survey on Qualtrics. The email and flyer also mentioned the op- portunity for participants to enter themselves in a randomized drawing for one of 70 $10 Amazon.com gift cards, or one of 30 $10 iTunes gift cards.

The survey was designed using Qualtrics' online survey appli- cation via the university's psychology department group account, and was accessible only by members of the research team. Partic- ipants followed the link found in either their recruitment email or on the flyer, and it took them to the first page of the survey. The first page of the survey explained the goals of study, ensured the par- ticipants' anonymity, and asked, if they were 18 or older, whether or not they consented to take part in the survey. If they chose not to consent, the survey was closed. However, if participants did opt to consent to take part in our study, they were then taken to a page that asked them to enter their age. If participants were under 18 years old, their survey was ended. From there, participants answered demographic questions, before completing the mea- sures. On average, the survey took between 10 and 15 min to complete. Upon completion of the survey, participants were directed to a page that asked if they would like to enter themselves into a drawing to potentially receive one of the gift cards. They were ensured their entry into the drawing would not be linked to their survey responses. Reminder emails were sent out to the

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participants contacted via the university's Registrar Office and LGBTQ organizations approximately one week before the survey was closed.

4.3. Measures

4.3.1. Demographics In addition to the participant information described above,

participants indicated the highest level of education each parent had achieved. Religiosity was assessed via the following three items, each scored from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much/every week): how religious are you; how often do you attend religious services; how often do you pray. A mean score was computed across the three items such that higher scores indicated a higher degree of religiosity (a ¼ 0.93). Descriptive statistics for the demographics used in our analysis are provided in Table 1.

4.3.2. Social support To measure participants' perceived social support, we used the

MOS Social Support Survey (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991). This measure consists of four separate social support subscales, although for our survey we only used the subscale that specifically analyzes “emotional/informational social support.” This subscale consists of 8 items, which each asks how often the participant has someone who can provide a certain type of support (e.g., “Someone you can count on to listen to you when you need to talk”). Response options ranged from 1 (none of the time) to 5 (all of the time). We added our own item that asked participants how often they had “someone of a similar community to relate to,” to include an assessment of sexual minority community support, specifically. Mean scores were computed across the 9 items (a ¼ 0.93) such that higher scores indicate greater perceived social support.

4.3.3. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity development To measure sexual minority participants' strength of sexual

identity, we used the revised version of Mohr and Fassinger (2000) Lesbian and Gay Identity Scale, titled the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (Mohr & Kendra, 2011). The scale contains 27 items, and is made up of six subscales that assess different dimensions of LGB identity discussed in clinical and theoretical literature. These six subscales are internalized homonegativity/binegativity (e.g., “I would rather be straight if I could; ” 5 items; a ¼ 0.86), need for privacy (e.g., “I prefer to keep my same-sex romantic relationships private; ” 6 items; a ¼ 0.78), need for acceptance (e.g., “I will never be able to accept my sexual orientation until all of the people in my life have accepted me; ” 5 items; a ¼ 0.76), identity confusion (e.g., “I'm not totally sure what my sexual orientation is; ” 4 items; a ¼ 0.89), difficult process (e.g., “Coming out to my friends and family has been a very lengthy process; ” 5 items; a ¼ 0.85), and superiority (e.g., “I look down on heterosexuals; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.65). Participants responded to each item using a 1 (disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly) response scale, with responses indicating how much each statement reflects their personal experience as a sexual minority person. A mean score was created across the items for each sub-scale. In addition, the original authors' second-order factor called Negative Identity was computed by averaging homo- negativity, need for privacy, need for acceptance, and difficult process (4 subscale-means; a ¼ 0.74). For the purposes of our analyses, we simply used the mean Negative Identity score as our assessment of sexual identity strength among sexual minority youth. In our an- alyses, we call this variable Negative Sexual Identity. The higher the mean scores for the Negative Sexual Identity score, the lower the identity strength.

4.3.4. Social networking site use To assess participants' motives for SNS use, we developed for

this study a “Social Networking Site Use” scale. The scale items were generated after an extensive review of the research litera- ture on the social networking site uses and behaviors of adoles- cents and young adults. After an analysis of the literature, it was found that there was not a popular, standardized scale used by multiple studies, and most researchers developed their own measures tailored to their studies' needs. Some common themes did emerge from the literature, and those themes were used as subscales in our own measure. Participants were first asked a few questions assessing how often they use social networking sites, which sites they use, what age they started using the sites, and what their favorite and most commonly used social networking site is. The remaining 30 items assess different motives for SNS use by asking participants to rate how much each statement applies to them (e.g., “I use social networking sites to communicate with friends,” “I use social networking sites to seek groups of people similar to myself”), with response options including “never (1),” “rarely (2),” “sometimes (3),” “often (4),” “all of the time (5),” or “N/A (not applicable).”

Responses to the 30 items were subjected to a Kaiser Normali- zation Oblimin rotation principal axis factor analysis. The following six subscales emerged: Identity Exploration (e.g., “I use social networking sites to explore aspects of myself; ” 6 items; a ¼ 0.85), Identity Expression (e.g., “I use social networking sites to speak my mind; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.93), Social Communication (e.g., “I use social networking sites to communicate with my friends; ” 6 items; a ¼ 0.77), Finding a Partner (e.g., “I use social networking sites to find romantic relationships; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.77), Witnessing Discrimination (e.g., “I witness others experience discrimination due to their sexual identity on SNS, specifically; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.89), SNS Dependency (e.g., “I would feel lonely, isolated, or disconnected without SNS; ” 4 items; a ¼ 0.83) and LGB Identity Work (e.g., “I use social networking sites to learn about my sexuality; ” 4 items; a ¼ 0.89 for only sexual minority sample). Within the LGB Identity Work subscale, two further subscales were established: LGB Identity Work with Others (e.g., “I use social networking sites as a way to stay engaged with the LGB community; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.91), and Sexual Identity Work (e.g., “I use social networking sites to discuss issues of sexual identity, online; ” 2 items; a ¼ 0.75). Mean scores were computed for each subscale such that higher scores indicated stronger motivations.

4.3.5. Mental health and wellbeing Two scales were used to assess participants' overall level of

negative mental health symptoms (i.e., loneliness, depression, anxiety, and hostility). To measure participants' levels of perceived loneliness, a short scale was used from a 2004 study (Hughes, Waite, Hawkley, & Cacioppo, 2004). This scale contains three items that ask participants how often do they “feel that [they] lack companionship,” “feel left out,” and “feel isolated from others.” Response options are “hardly ever,” “some of the time,” or “often.” A mean Loneliness score is computed across the three items, with the highest possible score of three and a lowest possible score of one (a ¼ 0.83).

To assess participants' mental health symptoms, more broadly, 26 items from the Brief Symptom Inventory were used (Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983), which we titled “Stress and the Body” for our survey. The items used assessed participants' mental health through five subscales that measure levels of anxiety (6 items; a ¼ 0.86), depression (6 items; a ¼ 0.88), hostility (5 items; a ¼ 0.76), paranoia (5 items; a ¼ 0.73), and sensitivity (4 items; a ¼ 0.83). Participants are asked to rank (“not at all” [1], “a little bit” [2], “moderately” [3], “quite a bit” [4], “extremely” [5], or “R” [refuse to

Table 1 Means of social support, sexual identity, demographics, SNS, and mental health for both sexual minority (n ¼ 124) and heterosexual (n ¼ 446) samples.

Sample mean S.D. Sexual minority M Heterosexual youth M F of group diff.

Social Support 4.08 0.80 4.03 4.09 0.529 Negative Sexual ID 3.57 1.08 3.57 na na Demographics Age (in years) 19.84 1.46 20.23 19.73 11.598***

Mother's Education 16.32 2.53 15.94 16.43 3.607 Father's Education 16.78 3.05 16.58 16.83 0.648 Religiosity 2.58 1.34 2.05 2.72 25.838***

SNS Variables Frequency of site use 4.25 0.84 4.35 4.23 2.268 Number of sites used 2.68 1.30 2.92 2.61 5.458*

Identity Exploration 1.93 0.79 2.43 1.80 69.636***

Identity Expression 2.57 1.14 3.04 2.44 28.256***

Finding Partners 1.25 0.55 1.46 1.19 24.550***

Social Communication 3.40 0.76 3.53 3.37 4.347*

LGB Identity Work 2.35 1.09 2.35 na na LGB Work with Others 2.38 1.19 2.38 na na Sexual ID Work 2.35 1.16 2.35 na na Witnessing Discrimination 2.03 0.99 2.63 1.86 66.064***

Dependency 2.45 0.70 2.68 2.38 18.453***

Mental Health Variables Loneliness 1.80 0.59 1.95 1.76 10.125**

Anxiety 1.72 0.76 1.87 1.68 6.332*

Depression 1.92 0.86 2.09 1.88 5.733*

Hostility 1.56 0.59 1.66 1.53 4.653*

Paranoia 1.63 0.67 1.71 1.61 1.828 Sensitivity 2.01 0.90 2.17 1.97 4.685*

Note. *p � 0.05; **p � 0.01; ***p � 0.001.

P.J.D. Ceglarek, L.M. Ward / Computers in Human Behavior 65 (2016) 201e209 205

answer]) how much they were distressed by different symptoms during the past seven days (i.e., “feeling easily annoyed or irritated,” “suddenly scared for no reason”). Means were computed for each subscale, with higher scores indicating more mental distress.

4.4. Data analytic strategy

Before running any of our analyses of focus, comparative sta- tistics were run between the missing and analytic sample using ANOVA. Then, to begin our main analyses, we ran descriptive sta- tistics on our analytic sample, and then comparative descriptive statistics between heterosexual and sexual minority youth using ANOVA (Table 1). We then ran intercorrelations among the social networking sub-scales to further test the reliability of this newly designed scale (Table 2).

To test our hypotheses, we ran three separate sets of multi- variate linear regression analysesdone set among all youth, one among heterosexual youth, and one among sexual minority youth. For each set of regressions, we first ran zero-order cor- relations between our demographic variables and the six mental health outcomes to determine necessary controls for the ana- lyses. Then, for each mental health outcome variable, we ran multivariate linear regressions with social support, SNS use fre- quency, SNS dependency, and SNS identity use as key predictors, as well as relevant sociodemographic controls. We chose to focus on identity-construction SNS uses as predictors in our analyses, in line with our hypotheses. We controlled for social support, SNS use frequency, and SNS dependency, as these variables are robustly linked with mental health outcomes in other literature.

For the regressions among all youth, analyses were also run among interactions between sexual identity and the aforemen- tioned SNS use variables, to check for differential associations be- tween heterosexual and sexual minority youth (Table 3). For the regressions among sexual minority youth only, analyses also included sexual minority identity strength, LGBQ sexual identity development, and witnessing discrimination via SNS, as these variables were unique to the sexual minority sample (Table 5).

5. Results

5.1. Attrition analysis

In preparation for our study analyses, we removed any partici- pants who had missing data in our variables of interest or were over 24 years old (n ¼ 53). Participants with missing data were signifi- cantly older than the analyzed sample (M ¼ 24.75, SD ¼ 7.06 vs. M ¼ 19.84, SD ¼ 1.46; F ¼ 189.28, p � 0.001). Participants with missing data had a greater actual count than expected of sexual minority persons in their sample, compared with the analytic sample that had a lower actual count than expected (n ¼ 22, 3.5% vs. n ¼ 124, 19.9%; c2 ¼ 10.55, p � 0.01). There were no significant differences in gender, racial and ethnic identity, in level of parents' education, or in religiosity. On average, participants with missing data reported using SNS less frequently (M ¼ 3.67, SD ¼ 1.34 vs. M ¼ 4.25, SD ¼ 0.84; F ¼ 20.23, p � 0.001) and using less SNS (M ¼ 2.09, SD ¼ 1.28 vs. M ¼ 2.68, SD ¼ 1.30; F ¼ 9.83, p � 0.01), compared to our analytic sample. However, participants with missing data reported using SNS to find romantic or sexual partners more than our sample of interest (M ¼ 1.45, SD ¼ 0.77 vs. M ¼ 1.25, SD ¼ 0.55; F ¼ 4.88, p � 0.05). There were no significant differences between the missing and analytic sample in any other variables in this study.

5.2. Preliminary analyses

5.2.1. Descriptive analyses Descriptive statistics for the main study variables are provided

in the first two columns of Table 1. Mean social support was found to be relatively high. Reported frequency of social networking site use was also high, with the mean values indicating all youth using the sites “often.” Concerning the number of sites used, we found that youth used close to 3 different SNS. The mean scores for each SNS motive indicate that using SNS for social communication was the strongest motive (M ¼ 3.40), with identity expression being the next strongest motive (M ¼ 2.57). Mean scores for negative mental

Table 2 Inter-correlations among social networking site use variables (N ¼ 570).

Freq. of site use ID explore ID express Finding Partners Social comm. LGB ID work LGB work w/others Sex ID work Witness disc. Dependency

Frequency of site use 0.24*** 0.29*** 0.03 0.55*** 0.12** 0.10* 0.12** 0.15** 0.57***

ID Explore 0.56*** 0.40*** 0.38*** 0.67*** 0.59*** 0.69*** 0.44*** 0.48***

ID Express 0.21*** 0.37*** 0.44*** 0.38*** 0.46*** 0.34*** 0.40***

Finding Partners 0.12** 0.41*** 0.40*** 0.39*** 0.22*** 0.15**

Social Comm. 0.21*** 0.18*** 0.22*** 0.24*** 0.50***

LGB ID Work 0.95*** 0.95*** 0.52*** 0.28***

LGB Work w/Others 0.82*** 0.45*** 0.25***

Sex ID Work 0.54*** 0.29***

Witness 0.22***

Dependency

Note. *p � 0.05; **p � 0.01; ***p � 0.001.

Table 3 Simultaneous regressions with interactions between SNS variables and sexual identity for mental health outcomes for all youth (N ¼ 570).

Loneliness Anxiety Depression Hostility Paranoia Sensitivity

Sex 0.01 �0.07 �0.04 0.05 �0.00 �0.13** Latino �0.07 0.02 �0.00 0.06 0.07 0.04 Religiosity 0.03 �0.03 �0.02 �0.03 0.05 0.01 Social Support �0.32*** �0.15*** �0.24*** �0.16*** �0.21*** �0.17*** Site Use Frequency �0.08 �0.07 �0.10* 0.05 �0.06 �0.05 ID Exploration 0.21*** 0.08 0.13* �0.00 0.15*** 0.20*** ID Expression �0.13* 0.04 0.07 0.17** 0.03 �0.07 Witnessing Discrimination 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.70 Dependency 0.21*** 0.07 0.09 �0.06 0.09 0.16* Sex ID � Frequency 0.28 0.44* 0.24 0.40 �0.03 0.31 Sex ID � Exploration �0.07 �0.41** �0.36* �0.36* �0.33* �0.15 Sex ID � Expression �0.26* 0.06 0.20 0.23 0.17 �0.05 Sex ID � Discrimination 0.04 �0.02 �0.01 �0.07 �0.05 �0.09 Sex ID � Dependency 0.05 0.05 �0.06 �0.17 0.20 �0.05 Adjusted R2 0.219 0.097 0.147 0.079 0.118 0.145 Equation F 12.324*** 5.330*** 5.011*** 4.448*** 6.396*** 7.832***

Note. *p � 0.05; **p � 0.01; ***p � 0.001. Standardized coefficients (betas) reported. ID¼Identity.

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health symptoms were relatively low. On a 1e5 scale, the highest reported symptom was sensitivity (M ¼ 2.01), followed by depressive symptoms (M ¼ 1.92).

Analyses of variance examining differences in the main variables for sexual minority (SM) and Heterosexual youth are listed in the final column of Table 1. Heterosexual youth were, on average, significantly more religious than SM youth. Our sexual minority sample was significantly older than the heterosexual sample. In terms of reasons for using social networking sites, we found that sexual minority youth reported higher levels of each motive, as well as a higher number of sites used, in comparison with heterosexual youth. Finally, as expected, sexual minority youth reported overall worse mental health, as they were found to experience higher levels of loneliness, anxiety, depressive symptoms, hostility, and sensitivity in comparison with their heterosexual peers. No other significant differences were found.

5.2.2. SNS subscale correlations Intercorrelations among the social networking sub-scales are

listed in Table 2. With the exception of SNS Use Frequency and Using SNS for Finding partners, all items show a strong relation with each other, with the strongest associations falling between LGB Identity Work, LGB Identity Work with Others, and Sexual Identity Work, and the weakest significant association being be- tween SNS Use Frequency and LGB Identity Work with Others.

5.2.3. Regression controls For a second set of preliminary analyses, we conducted zero-

order correlations between our six mental health variables and the following seven demographic variables: gender (recoded into a

male/female binary, excluding the 3 non-binary gender partici- pants, with 0 ¼ Female and 1 ¼ Male), age, religiosity, identifying as Asian (dummy coded 1/0), identifying as Latino (1/0), identifying as Black (1/0), and identifying as Multiracial (1/0). Among the full sample, greater religiosity was significantly correlated with less loneliness (r ¼ �0.09, p � 0.05), anxiety (r ¼ �0.10, p � 0.05), depressive symptoms (r ¼ �0.11, p � 0.01), and hostility (r ¼ �0.08, p � 0.05); identifying as male was correlated with less sensitivity (r ¼ 0.10, p � 0.05); and identifying as Latino was significantly correlated with greater paranoia (r ¼ 0.08, p � 0.05). Among het- erosexual youth, greater religiosity was significantly correlated with less loneliness (r ¼ �0.10, p � 0.05), and fewer depressive symptoms (r ¼ �0.10, p � 0.05); and identifying as male was correlated with less sensitivity (r ¼ 0.10, p � 0.05). Among the SM youth, being older was significantly correlated with less sensitivity (r ¼ �0.34, p � 0.05). These significant demographic correlates served as controls in subsequent regression analyses.

5.3. Testing the main research questions and hypotheses

Our first set of regression analyses sought to test contributions of SNS use and SNS motives to mental health (H1), and to test possible interactive effects of sexual identity. All variables were entered simultaneously as predictors, with controls for gender, identifying as Latino, religiosity, and social support. Results are provided in Table 3. Each equation was significant, and predictors explained from 7.9% to 21.9% of the adjusted variance. Greater levels of perceived social support were associated with fewer reported mental health symptoms, overall. Furthermore, SNS use for identity exploration was associated with greater reported symptoms of

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loneliness, depression, paranoia, and sensitivity. Identity explora- tion motives also interacted significantly with sexual identity for four of the six outcomes. To better understand these significant interactions, and the differences between SM and heterosexual youth reported in Table 1, we decided to run separate regression analyses stratified by sexual identity.

Our next set of analyses investigated the same associations among heterosexual youth (H1). Results are provided in Table 4. Each equation was significant, and the predictors accounted for 9.0e22.4% of the adjusted variance. For heterosexual youth, greater social support was consistently associated with lower levels of re- ported mental health symptoms, and more frequent SNS use was associated with lower levels of reported symptoms of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and sensitivity. However, using social networking sites for exploring one's identity was consistently associated with higher levels of reported mental health symptoms. In addition, SNS use dependency was associated with greater loneliness and sensitivity.

Our final set of analyses investigated the same associations among sexual minority youth, while controlling for sexual identity strength (H1 & H2). Results are provided in Table 5. Only the equations for Loneliness, Paranoia, and Sensitivity were significant, with their predictors accounting for 7.8e17.6% of the variance. Within these models, higher levels of perceived social support were related to lower levels of reported loneliness and paranoia, and being older was associated with lower levels of reported sensitivity. Otherwise, using SNS for developing one's sense of LGB sexual identity was associated with lower levels of reported paranoia. No other significant associations among the significant models were found.

Finally, to further test our Media Practice Model framework, proposing that SNS use may shape sexual identity, and sexual identity may in-turn shape SNS use (H2), we ran regression ana- lyses among sexual minority youth for the same variables, and also included variables representing the interaction of negative sexual identity strength and SNS use (similar to the terms created in Table 3). However, no significant associations between mental health and the interaction of sexual identity and SNS use were found.

6. Discussion

Although studies have shown that SNS are generally a valuable tool for identity development, social support, and mental health among today's youth, very little work has been done on sexual minority youth's SNS use, and none to our knowledge has compared sexual minority youth's SNS use behaviors to their mental health. Our study sought to address this gap. Based on the Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995), we predicted that sexual minority youth who use SNS in a targeted manner to

Table 4 Simultaneous regressions predicting mental health outcomes for heterosexual youth (n

Loneliness Anxiety

Sex �0.04 �0.08 Religiosity 0.00 �0.02 Social Support �0.34*** �0.20*** Site Use Frequency �0.16** �0.18** ID Exploration 0.21*** 0.21***

ID Expression �0.01 0.01 Witnessing Discrimination 0.02 0.06 Dependency 0.18** 0.08

Adjusted R2 0.224 0.129 Equation F 16.905*** 9.161***

Note. *p � 0.05; **p � 0.01; ***p � 0.001. Standardized coefficients (betas) reported.

selectively explore their sexual identity would develop a stronger sense of this identity and social support among like peers, and thus experience better mental health outcomes. This prediction seemed to be partially supported, and is further discussed below.

6.1. Hypothesis 1: mental health in relation to SNS use motives

Our first hypothesis, which predicted that greater use of social networking sites for identity exploration and identity expression would each relate to better mental health outcomes for all youth, was not supported. Instead, greater use of SNS for identity explo- ration was related to worse mental health for heterosexual youth, and was unrelated to sexual minority youth's mental health. Our original hypothesis stems from literature suggesting that youth who have the opportunity to comfortably and successfully develop and explore their identities have better psychological outcomes (e.g., Waterman, 1982). Yet, the opposite findings could be explained if youth are feeling more vulnerable and insecure in their identities, as they present themselves online.

Moreover, the element of upward social comparison with others could also be mediating the observed association between identity exploration and negative mental health. Youth shape and modify their identities based on social feedback, directly or indirectly, ob- tained from their peers (Adams & Marshall, 1996), and these pro- cesses are similar on SNS (Clarke, 2009; Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). As youth present their identities online, they critique and judge their own self based on identities they see as more or less developed or desirable than their owndin other words, they use social comparison to shape their identities. Researchers have demonstrated that youth who are heavily engaged in social comparison on SNS have poorer self-perceptions, lower self-esteem, and more negative affect than those who engage in less social comparison (Vogel et al., 2015). Furthermore, this negative social comparison on SNS can lead to youth's engaging in rumination, which can promote symptoms of depression (Feinstein et al., 2013).

Yet why would general identity exploration be likely to lead to negative social comparison and rumination? One possible expla- nation is that this general identity exploration is indicative of passive SNS use. Passive SNS usedor use that is more based in looking at pictures, posts, and statuses, rather than producing content or engaging in communicationdis related to negative affect and affective wellbeing, as well as greater levels of social anxiety symptoms (Shaw et al., 2015; Verduyn et al., 2015). Passive SNS use has also been shown to be linked to brooding via the same mechanisms (Shaw et al., 2015). What we may be seeing in our association with general identity exploration and negative mental health is that general identity exploration is indicative of untar- geted SNS usedSNS use without a purpose, which could easily lead to passive use and subject the user to the viewing of many other

¼ 446).

Depression Hostility Paranoia Sensitivity

�0.08 0.03 �0.00 �0.15*** �0.01 0.01 0.07 0.01 �0.29*** �0.22*** �0.26*** �0.22*** �0.15** �0.06 �0.05 �0.15** 0.24*** 0.12* 0.24*** 0.22***

�0.02 0.06 �0.04 �0.05 0.04 0.09 0.10* 0.10*

0.11 0.01 0.04 0.18**

0.182 0.090 0.148 0.167 13.294*** 6.445*** 10.594*** 12.090***

Table 5 Simultaneous regressions predicting mental health outcomes for sexual minority youth (n ¼ 124).

Loneliness Anxiety Depression Hostility Paranoia Sensitivity

Age 0.03 �0.00 �0.03 �0.03 0.02 �0.25* Social Support �0.27** �0.03 �0.10 �0.04 �0.21* �0.04 Negative Sexual ID 0.02 �0.01 0.09 0.13 �0.13 0.15 Site Use Frequency 0.14 �0.07 �0.07 0.02 �0.14 �0.08 ID Exploration 0.31 0.08 0.19 �0.00 0.31 0.21 ID Expression �0.20 0.25 0.24 0.37** 0.20 0.03 LGB ID Work �0.19 �0.35* �0.29 �0.32* �0.43** �0.18 Witnessing Discrimination 0.16 0.17 0.07 0.09 0.20 0.20 Dependency 0.12 �0.00 0.03 �0.11 0.06 0.11 Adjusted R2 0.143 �0.005 0.032 0.049 0.078 0.176 Equation F 3.053** 0.938 1.404 1.634 2.040* 3.627**

Note. *p � 0.05; **p � 0.01; ***p � 0.001. Standardized coefficients (betas) reported.

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profiles and to many self-comparisons. This explanation is further supported by our finding that the association between identity exploration and mental health was only found among heterosexual youth, who reported lower average scores on our SNS use scales, indicating less purposeful SNS use.

6.2. Hypothesis 2: SNS use for developing marginalized sexual identity

Our second hypothesis predicted that among sexual minority youth, those using SNS more to develop their sense of their sexual identity would experience better mental health outcomes than those using SNS less for this purpose. This hypothesis was partially supported. Even with perceived social support accounted for in our models, we saw that using SNS for developing one's sexual identity was associated with lower levels of paranoia for SM youth. Furthermore, there are potential associations between SNS sexual identity development and lower anxiety and hostility, as seen in our non-significant models. These findings support previous research investigating resiliency among marginalized youth with a strong social identity, as mentioned before. However, in our study, we are perhaps seeing that this identity can be cultivated online, potentially indicating that even for marginalized youth who are physically isolated from their peers, they can still connect with similar youth online to develop a strong sense in their social identity.

6.3. Limitations

In addition to the constraints noted throughout the discussion above, this study has several other limitations that future research will want to address. First, the data obtained for this study were self-report, cross-sectional data. For many of the measured aspects and tested relations, having temporal data from a longitudinal study, or even causal data from an experiment, would prove extremely beneficial to clarify some of the less intuitive relations observed, and solidify the predicted outcomes obtained. Also, using observational and qualitative data for measures such as mental health and SNS behaviors would have been useful to further vali- date our new measures, as well as our explanations for the asso- ciations observed. However, constructs such as motives, social support, and sexual identity strength are difficult to assess without using self-report data.

Moreover, because we sought to avoid overburdening our par- ticipants, we did not assess potentially valuable social networking variables related to online social comparison, SNS-specific social comparison, and quality of social networking site relationships. We encourage future studies to examine these to better understand the social processes affecting youth's mental health when using SNS.

Finally, a major limitation of our study is that our relatively small sample of sexual minority youth may have weakened the power of analyses conducted with this group. Furthermore, this small sam- ple does not allow us to conduct subgroup analyses, which are crucial among a diverse population, such as sexual minority youthdthose who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or a different queer identity may all have very different experiences online. Yet we also acknowledge that large recruitment, especially of truly random samples, with sexual minority populations is extremely difficult in all fields. It is hard to recruit sexual minority youth for any academic research because they are a marginalized and often isolated minority population, with many individuals who are not open regarding their identity. Therefore, we encourage all future researchers working with sexual minority populations to use more innovative, and even community-based, approaches to recruit- ment, so we may better understand and serve this population.

6.4. Future directions and conclusion

Given these limitations, future avenues of research should include narrowing in on the key associations found in this study- dlooking at dependency of SNS sites, sensitivity, and general identity development among sexual minority youth. These future studies should include broader data collection methods mentioned above and should work to establish mediating and causal relations for the associations that emerged. Specifically, we believe that it would be beneficial to conduct longitudinal analyses following sexual minority and heterosexual youth over time, to see how the advent of SNS use changes their identity development process, and if changes in mental health indeed occur as an antecedent of these uses. Future studies with more participants for sufficient power should also conduct SEM analyses, to confirm the associative pathways between our variables and confirm their construct validity.

However, on a broader scale, as one of the first studies to examine these variables among sexual minority youth, this study paves the way for future research regarding marginalized groups, in general, and their mental health implications of social networking site use. It is interesting to see that even if a group experiences worse mental health, overall, they can still find benefits to poten- tially combat those symptoms via different social networking mo- tives and behaviors. Further research in determining the exact processes of these relations could lead to another avenue of com- munity support and mental health interventions.

Finally, we believe that program developers and community health practitioners should consider developing SNS apps and “online” groups specifically for sexual minority youth and other marginalized youth to give them a safe space to develop their identity and reap the mental health benefits of feeling confident

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and proud in their identity. Furthermore, mental health practi- tioners working with marginalized youth who express fear of stigmatization or violence for expressing their identity in their offline lives may want to suggest to these youth that they seek spaces via SNS to express themselves and find support. Through creating and allowing social networking spaces online where people can escape the discrimination and stressful environments they may encounter offline, we can offer people of marginalized groups the chance to develop positive mental health and identity online, while at the same time encouraging them to stay away from harmful uses of the sites.

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