Revealing Barriers to Identity Exploration Among Sexual Minority Youth in Social Media Environments: A Systematic Literature Review

<ns5:p>Background Sexual minority youth (SMY) face a fundamental paradox: the social media platforms they most depend on for identity exploration simultaneously harbor factors that obstruct that very process. These barriers operate synergistically at the psychological, interpersonal, sociocultural, and structural-platform levels, yet have never been synthesized within a unified framework. This review synthesizes empirical evidence on factors inhibiting SMY identity exploration in social media environments using an integrative framework comprising Communication Privacy Management, Minority Stress Theory, and Affordances Theory. Methods Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines and a pre-registered protocol at the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZF7RT), systematic searches were conducted in Scopus (n = 385), Web of Science (n = 370), and JSTOR (n = 58). From 408 unique records following deduplication, 30 empirical articles were included after two-stage screening. Inter-rater reliability: κ = .99 (title and abstract screening) and κ = .90 (full-text screening). Inductive thematic synthesis was applied, with study quality assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results Four analytical themes were identified: (1) psychological internal barriers (n = 24; 80.0%), including internalized homophobia, expected rejection, and identity concealment; (2) interpersonal stigma and discrimination (n = 26; 86.7%), including hate speech, family rejection, and identity erasure; (3) sociocultural and legal constraints (n = 20; 66.7%), including religious-legal condemnation and conservative norms; and (4) structural platform and algorithmic barriers (n = 15; 50.0%), including context collapse, algorithmic invisibility, and over-moderation. All four themes mutually reinforce one another. Conclusions Barriers to SMY identity exploration are layered, synergistic, and resist single-theory explanation. The proposed integrative framework offers a theoretical foundation for more comprehensive research and intervention, with implications for platform designers, mental health practitioners, educators, and policymakers.</ns5:p>