Mutual Influence in LGBTQ Teens’ Use of Media to Socialize Their Parents

Abstract

Recent theorizing posits that parents and their children influence each other, and that media use is a locus of such mutual influence. Two surveys of LGBTQ 18- and 19-year-olds (N = 276; N = 369, the latter a replication) tested hypotheses that LGBTQ teens use media to socialize their parents about their sexual and gender identities, and that these uses elicit parental responses which have implications for the teen. In both studies, teens reported co-viewing and mediating their parents’ exposure to LGBTQ content (i.e., encouraging positive exposure, discouraging negative exposure, critiquing/explicating depictions) and indicated that such moments sometimes elicited conversations about their own sexual or gender identities. In both studies, their perceptions of their parents’ receptivity to these interactions varied widely. In both studies, teens’ LGBTQ-media-related behavior and perceptions of parental receptivity were positively associated with perceptions that their parents supported their LGBTQ identity. Perceived receptivity (in Study 1) and perceived support for the teens’ LGBTQ identities (in Study 2) were associated with teens’ self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Overall, despite some inconsistencies between the two studies and the limitations of cross-sectional data, the findings are consistent with mutual influence.