{"doi":"10.3390/ijerph21030300","title":"Sexual Minorities and Loneliness: Exploring Sexuality through Social Media and Gender–Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Supports","abstract":"<jats:p>We examined online and offline social supports for sexual minority adolescents, underscoring the understudied developmental period of early adolescence and the mental outcome of loneliness. Stemming from a larger study in the northeast U.S., 967 youth participants were 26% sexual minority, 53% female, 45% male, and 2% other/nonbinary (mean age = 13.1, SD = 1.52). LGBTQ+ youth reported significantly higher levels of loneliness compared to their heterosexual counterparts. To understand potential sources of social support while exploring their sexual identities, we compared the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth at both ends of the loneliness spectrum. Gaining knowledge about their sexual orientation from LGBTQ+ organization websites, participating in gender–sexuality alliances, and using TikTok or Instagram were associated with lower levels of loneliness. Providing social support to online friends was associated with lower loneliness; however, receiving online support was not associated with lower loneliness. Furthermore, proactive social media engagement such as posting uplifting content, joining online communities, or raising awareness about social issues were associated with lower levels of loneliness. The results provide guidance on specific youth behaviors and online communities beyond a focus on screen time while highlighting the continued need for social support to ameliorate loneliness, such as gender–sexuality alliance networks.</jats:p>","journal":"International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health","year":2024,"id":644184,"datarank":0.4882840567597439,"base_score":2.4849066497880004,"endowment":2.4849066497880004,"self_citation_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citation_network_contribution":0.11554805929154378,"self_endowment_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citer_contribution":0.11554805929154378,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":9,"citers_with_citation_signal":3,"citers_with_endowment":3,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":856487,"name":"Alice Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-6953-1737","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1671931,"name":"Kaitlyn Wang","orcid":"0009-0000-3865-4139","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1467042,"name":"Becky Chen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":659826,"name":"Linda Charmaraman","orcid":"0000-0001-6413-0451","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Sexual Minorities and Loneliness: Exploring Sexuality through Social Media and Gender–Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Supports","abstract":"<jats:p>We examined online and offline social supports for sexual minority adolescents, underscoring the understudied developmental period of early adolescence and the mental outcome of loneliness. Stemming from a larger study in the northeast U.S., 967 youth participants were 26% sexual minority, 53% female, 45% male, and 2% other/nonbinary (mean age = 13.1, SD = 1.52). LGBTQ+ youth reported significantly higher levels of loneliness compared to their heterosexual counterparts. To understand potential sources of social support while exploring their sexual identities, we compared the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth at both ends of the loneliness spectrum. Gaining knowledge about their sexual orientation from LGBTQ+ organization websites, participating in gender–sexuality alliances, and using TikTok or Instagram were associated with lower levels of loneliness. Providing social support to online friends was associated with lower loneliness; however, receiving online support was not associated with lower loneliness. Furthermore, proactive social media engagement such as posting uplifting content, joining online communities, or raising awareness about social issues were associated with lower levels of loneliness. The results provide guidance on specific youth behaviors and online communities beyond a focus on screen time while highlighting the continued need for social support to ameliorate loneliness, such as gender–sexuality alliance networks.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":2.4849066497880004,"endowment":2.4849066497880004,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"38541299","pmcid":"PMC10970596","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4392470455","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"1R15HD094281-01","title":"Early adolescent social technology use and parental monitoring: Implications for psychosocial and behavioral health"},{"funder_name":"NICHD NIH HHS","grant_id":"R15 HD094281","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":5.1977,"citation_percentile":0.9530063,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2024,"count":2},{"year":2025,"count":5},{"year":2026,"count":4}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/300/pdf?version=1709566149","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/300/pdf?version=1709566149","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/300/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030300","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38541299","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/10970596","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/300/","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10970596/pdf/ijerph-21-00300.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10970596","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10970596?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030300","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030300","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy","Social Media and Politics","Gender, Feminism, and Media","05 social sciences","03 medical and health sciences","0302 clinical medicine","0501 psychology and cognitive sciences","Adolescent","Humans","Male","Female","Social Media","Loneliness","Sexual Behavior","Sexual and Gender Minorities","Heterosexuality"],"mesh_terms":["Sexual and Gender Minorities","Adolescent","Female","Humans","Loneliness","Male","Sexual Behavior","Heterosexuality","Social Media"],"keywords":["Loneliness","Psychology","Human sexuality","Alliance","Sexual orientation","Social media","Sexual minority","Social support","Developmental psychology","Social psychology","Gender studies","Sociology","Political science","Adolescents","Sexual Minorities","Gender–sexuality Alliances (Gsas)","Male","Adolescent","Sexual Behavior","Article","Sexual and Gender Minorities","Humans","Female","Heterosexuality"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Gender equality"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-09T00:34:41.596013Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}