Social media experiences of transgender and gender diverse youth and their parents

摘要 在美国，超过15万名青少年认为自己是变性人或性别多元化(TGGD)。TGGD 青少年精神健康问题的风险很高，而社会支持对于减轻这一风险至关重要。TGGD 在性别认同上得到肯定的年轻人的心理健康问题的比率与一般人相似 青少年人口。然而，年轻人得到的肯定和支持可能来自多个地方。 父母和同伴的支持是确认性别认同的关键因素。我们的初步数据显示， 社交媒体平台也被TGGD青年用于社会支持。特别是，信息性 来自社交媒体的支持可能是性别认同探索和医学知识的重要因素 激素治疗和手术等干预措施。TGGD青年报道关注流行社交媒体 内容创作者，或在各种社交媒体平台上寻找信息和灵感的“影响者” 从这些人那里。然而，在TGGD影响者中发现的信息的性质和事实准确性 内容在很大程度上是未知的。TGGD青少年的父母和广大公众表达了对社会 媒体内容可能会对青少年的性别认同形成产生不适当的影响，导致可能的性别 年轻人的困惑和不适当的医疗干预要求。然而，TGGD的前景 关于这个话题的年轻人是未知的，父母对TGGD相关数字内容的具体思考也是未知的。这个 这项建议的总体目标是从多个方面考察TGGD影响者内容的现象 研究视角包括客观内容分析、青年主导的质化探究和家长主导的质化 问询。这项研究的基本原理是，对自然、事实准确性和年轻人的进一步了解 家长对TGGD影响者内容的感知是制定预期指导的第一步 为认同为TGGD及其父母的青年提供服务和媒体识字。目标是：目标1：执行 社交媒体帖子的内容分析描述了流行的TGGD榜样，也被称为 影响者，通过医疗和非医疗讨论性别认同发展和性别肯定 手段；目标2：使用定性询问和数字提示，确定对以下问题的看法和关切 TGGD影响者在TGGD青少年的父母中创建的社交媒体内容；目标3：使用质化 查询和数字提示，确定TGGD青年报告影响者创建的内容的元素 有助于通过医疗和非医疗手段探索性别认同和性别肯定。 这些目标将通过直接观察TGGD影响者的社交媒体个人资料来实现， 然后是对TGGD青年的半结构化访谈，参与者对影响者进行看法和反思 内容，以及类似的对TGGD青少年父母的半结构化访谈。

ABSTRACT Over 150,000 adolescents in the United States identify as transgender or gender diverse (TGGD). TGGD youth are at high risk for mental health problems, and social support is critical for mitigating this risk. TGGD youth who are affirmed in their gender identities have similar rates of mental health concerns as the general population of adolescents. However, the affirmation and support youth receive can come from multiple places. Parental and peer support are crucial factors in affirmation of gender identity. Our preliminary data show that social media platforms are also being used by TGGD youth for social support. In particular, informational support from social media may be an important factor in gender identity exploration and knowledge of medical interventions such as hormonal treatment and surgeries. TGGD youth report following popular social media content creators, or “influencers,” on various social media platforms and finding information and inspiration from these individuals. However, the nature and factual accuracy of information found in TGGD influencer content is largely unknown. Parents of TGGD youth and the public at large have expressed concern that social media content may have undue influence on youths’ gender identity formation, leading to possible gender confusion in youth and inappropriate requests for medical intervention. However, the perspectives of TGGD youth on this topic are unknown, as are specific parental reflections on TGGD-related digital content. The overarching goal of this proposal is to examine the phenomenon of TGGD influencer content from multiple angles including objective content analysis, youth-driven qualitative inquiry, and parent-driven qualitative inquiry. The rationale for this study is that further knowledge of the nature, factual accuracy, and youth and parent perceptions of TGGD influencer content is a first step toward developing anticipatory guidance for providers and media literacy for youth who identify as TGGD and their parents. The aims are: Aim 1: Perform a content analysis of social media posts to describe the ways that popular TGGD role models, also known as influencers, discuss gender identity development and gender affirmation through medical and nonmedical means; Aim 2: Using qualitative inquiry and digital prompts, identify the perceptions of and concerns regarding TGGD influencer-created social media content among parents of TGGD youth; and Aim 3: Using qualitative inquiry and digital prompts, determine elements of TGGD influencer-created content that TGGD youth report are helpful for exploration of gender identity and gender affirmation through medical and nonmedical means. These Aims will be carried out through direct observation of social media profiles of TGGD influencers, followed by semistructured interviews with TGGD youth in which participants view and reflect on influencer content, as well as similar semistructured interviews with parents of TGGD youth.