Vogel Erin A, Ramo Danielle E, Prochaska Judith J, Meacham Meredith C, Layton John F, Humfleet Gary L
Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.
Hopelab, San Francisco, CA, United States.
JMIR Ment Health. 2021 May 28;8(5):e23688. doi: 10.2196/23688.
Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience minority stress, especially when they lack social support. SGM young adults may turn to social media in search of a supportive community; however, social media use can become problematic when it interferes with functioning. Problematic social media use may be associated with experiences of minority stress among SGM young adults.
The objective of this study is to examine the associations among social media use, SGM-related internalized stigma, emotional social support, and depressive symptoms in SGM young adults.
Participants were SGM young adults who were regular (≥4 days per week) social media users (N=302) and had 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 emotional social support, and depressive symptoms. Pearson correlations tested bivariate associations among problematic social media use, hours of social media use, internalized SGM stigma, perceived emotional social support, and depressive symptoms. Multiple linear regression examined the associations between the aforementioned variables and problematic social media use and was adjusted for gender identity.
A total of 302 SGM young adults were included in the analyses (assigned female at birth: 218/302, 72.2%; non-Hispanic White: 188/302, 62.3%; age: mean 21.9 years, SD 2.2 years). The sexual identity composition of the sample was 59.3% (179/302) bisexual and/or pansexual, 17.2% (52/302) gay, 16.9% (51/302) lesbian, and 6.6% (20/302) other. The gender identity composition of the sample was 61.3% (185/302) cisgender; 24.2% (73/302) genderqueer, fluid, nonbinary, or other; and 14.6% (44/302) transgender. Problematic social media use averaged 2.53 (SD 0.94) on a 5-point scale, with a median of 17 hours of social media use per week (approximately 2.5 h per day). Participants with greater problematic social media use had greater internalized SGM stigma (r=0.22; P<.001) and depressive symptoms (r=0.22; P<.001) and lower perceived emotional social support (r=-0.15; P=.007). Greater internalized SGM stigma remained was significantly associated with greater problematic social media use after accounting for the time spent on social media and other correlates (P<.001). In addition, participants with greater depressive symptoms had marginally greater problematic social media use (P=.05). In sum, signs of problematic social media use were more likely to occur among SGM young adults who had internalized SGM stigma and depressive symptoms.
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. SGM young adults experiencing minority stress may be at risk for problematic social media use.
性取向和性别少数群体（SGM）个体经历着少数群体压力，尤其是在缺乏社会支持时。SGM青年可能会转向社交媒体寻找支持性社区；然而，当社交媒体使用干扰其正常功能时，就可能出现问题。有问题的社交媒体使用可能与SGM青年的少数群体压力经历有关。
本研究的目的是探讨SGM青年中社交媒体使用、与SGM相关的内化耻辱感、情感社会支持和抑郁症状之间的关联。
参与者为SGM青年，他们是社交媒体的常规用户（每周≥4天）（N = 302），并参加了Facebook戒烟干预。作为基线评估一部分，参与者自我报告有问题的社交媒体使用情况（以突出性感、耐受性和类似戒断的体验为特征；改编自Facebook成瘾量表）、每周社交媒体使用时长、内化的SGM耻辱感、感知到的情感社会支持和抑郁症状。Pearson相关性检验用于分析有问题的社交媒体使用、社交媒体使用时长、内化的SGM耻辱感、感知到的情感社会支持和抑郁症状之间的双变量关联。多元线性回归分析上述变量与有问题的社交媒体使用之间的关联，并对性别认同进行了调整。
共有302名SGM青年纳入分析（出生时被指定为女性：218/302，72.2%；非西班牙裔白人：188/302，62.3%；年龄：平均21.9岁，标准差2.2岁）。样本的性取向构成是59.3%（179/302）双性恋和/或泛性恋、17.2%（52/302）男同性恋者、16.9%（51/302）女同性恋者和6.6%（20/302）其他。样本的性别认同构成是61.3%（185/302）顺性别者；24.2%（73/302）性别酷儿、流动性别者、非二元性别者或其他；14.6%（44/302）跨性别者。有问题的社交媒体使用在5分制量表上平均得分为2.53（标准差0.94），每周社交媒体使用时长中位数为17小时（约每天2.5小时）。有问题的社交媒体使用程度较高的参与者有更高的内化SGM耻辱感（r = 0.22；P <.001）和抑郁症状（r = 0.22；P <.001），以及更低的感知到的情感社会支持（r = -0.15；P =.007）。在考虑了在社交媒体上花费的时间和其他相关因素后，更高的内化SGM耻辱感仍然与更高的有问题的社交媒体使用显著相关（P <.001）。此外有更高抑郁症状的参与者有略微更高的有问题的社交媒体使用程度（P =.05）。总之，有问题的社交媒体使用迹象更有可能出现在有内化SGM耻辱感和抑郁症状的SGM青年中。
综上所述，SGM青年中有问题的社交媒体使用与负面心理体验有关，包括内化耻辱感、低社会支持和抑郁症状。经历少数群体压力的SGM青年可能有有问题的社交媒体使用风险。
