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Social media has been described as both a safe and toxic space for LGBTQ + youth. This mixed-methods online study examined whether differences in youth's open-ended narratives moderate associations between quantitative measures of online discrimination and mental health and substance use. Three thematic groups emerged from open-ended responses of 406 LGBTQ+ 14–18-year-old participants: social media as a source of connection, refuge, or rejection. Moderation analyses indicated that at higher levels of discrimination, youth in the connection narrative groups experienced elevated associations between measures of discrimination and depression, anxiety, and substance use compared to the rejection group. The results highlight the significance of a mixed-methods approach, as narratives from LGBTQ + youth about their social media experiences illuminated the quantitative findings. Findings also call for practices that acknowledge the dual-faceted experiences on social media and promote connections within LGBTQ + communities to increase LGBTQ + youth's mental health resilience against online discrimination.
Fisher et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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