title: Adolescent online romantic relationship initiation: differences by sexual and gender identification.
abstract: Data from the national Teen Health and Technology Study of adolescents 13-18 years old (N = 5091) were used to examine online formation of romantic relationships. Results show that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) and non-LGBTQ adolescents similarly were most likely to have met their most recent boy/girlfriend in the past 12 months at school. However, they differed on many characteristics of romantic relationship initiation, including the extent to which they initiated romantic relationships online. LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ adolescents also differed on level of offline access to potential partners, offline popularity, and numerous other factors possibly related to online relationship initiation (e.g., Internet use and demographic factors). Even after adjusting for differences in these factors, LGBTQ adolescents were more likely than non-LGBTQ adolescents to find boy/girlfriends online in the past 12 months. The results support the rich-get-richer hypothesis as well as the social compensation hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona-Southwest Institute for Research on Women, 181 S. Tucson Blvd., Ste. 101, Tucson, AZ 85716, USA; Center for Innovative Public Health Research, Inc., 555 N. El Camino Real #A347, San Clemente, CA 92672-6745, USA. Electronic address: jkorch@email.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Josephine D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Korchmaros
authors.affiliation: Center for Innovative Public Health Research, Inc., 555 N. El Camino Real #A347, San Clemente, CA 92672-6745, USA. Electronic address: michele@isolutions4kids.org.
authors.forename: Michele L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ybarra
authors.affiliation: Crimes Against Children Research Center, Family Research Lab, University of New Hampshire, 10 West Edge Drive, Ste. 106, Durham, NH, USA. Electronic address: kimberly.mitchell@unh.edu.
authors.forename: Kimberly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D019529:Sexuality; D063106:Transgender Persons / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Adolescents; Internet use; Romantic relationship initiation