title: Online social support as a buffer against online and offline peer and sexual victimization among U.S. LGBT and non-LGBT youth.
abstract: In today's technology-infused world, we need to better understand relationships youth form with friends online, how they compare to relationships formed in-person, and whether these online relationships confer protective benefits. This is particularly important from the perspective of peer victimization, given that social support in-person appears to reduce the odds of victimization in-person. To address this literature gap, data from a sample of 5,542 U.S. adolescents, collected online between August 2010 and January 2011, were analyzed. The main variables of interest were: online and in-person peer victimization (including generalized and bullying forms) and online and in-person sexual victimization (including generalized and sexual harassment forms). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth were more likely than non-LGBT youth to have online friends and to appraise these friends as better than their in-person friends at providing emotional support. Peer victimization and unwanted sexual experiences were more commonly reported by LGBT than non-LGBT youth. Perceived quality of social support, either online or in-person, did little to attenuate the relative odds of victimization for LGBT youth. For all youth, in-person social support was associated with reduced odds of bully victimization (online and in-person) and sexual harassment (in-person), but was unrelated to the other outcomes of interest. Online social support did not reduce the odds of any type of victimization assessed. Together, these findings suggest that online friends can be an important source of social support, particularly for LGBT youth. Nonetheless, in-person social support appears to be more protective against victimization, suggesting that one is not a replacement for the other.
authors.affiliation: Center for Innovative Public Health Research, 555 El Camino Real #A347, San Clemente, CA 92672, USA.
authors.forename: Michele L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ybarra
authors.affiliation: Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, 10 West Edge Drive, Ste. 106, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.affiliation: Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 90 Broad St. 2nd FL., New York City, NY 10004, USA.
authors.forename: Neal A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Sari L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Reisner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology; D017406:Sexual Harassment / Q000523:psychology; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014189:Transsexualism / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States
keywords: Bullying; LGBT; Sexual violence; Social support; Victimization