Background Early adolescent years are marked by pervasive self- and peer-regulation regarding gender and sexuality norms, which can affect the mental well-being of sexual minority youth. During this developmental period, social media use is also emerging as a dominant mode of communication with peers, allowing for both risk and resilient behaviors that can impact well-being. Objective This exploratory study aims to examine how sexual minorities in middle school use social media, who they are connected to and for what purposes, and the associations between these behaviors and mental well-being compared with their heterosexual peers. Methods In our cross-sectional survey study of 1033 early adolescents aged between 10 and 16 years (average age 12.7, SD 1.21 years) from 4 middle school sites in the Northeastern United States, we conducted an exploratory study comparing sexual minorities (212/873, 24.3% of sample with known sexual orientation) with their heterosexual peers (n=661), obtaining an 84.46% (1033/1223; total possible) response rate. Results Sexual minorities reported having smaller networks on their favorite social media website (β=−.57; P<.001), less often responded positively when friends shared good news (β=−.35; P=.002), and less often tried to make friends feel better when they shared bad news (β=−.30; P=.01). However, sexual minorities more often reported joining a group or web-based community to make themselves feel less alone (β=.28; P=.003), unlike heterosexual youth. Sexual minorities had higher averages of loneliness and social isolation (β=.19; P<.001) than heterosexual students. Sexual minorities were also twice as likely to have tried to harm themselves in the past (β=.81; odds ratio [OR] 2.24, 95% CI 1.64-3.06; P<.001) and were more likely to have symptoms that reached the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression definition of depression (β=.15; OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.08-1.25; P<.001). About 39.1% (83/212) of sexual minorities had no one to talk to about their sexual orientation. Sexual minorities were 1.5 times more likely to have joined a social media website their parents would disapprove (β=.41; OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.14-1.97; P=.004) and more likely to report seeing videos related to self-harm (β=.33; OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.06-1.83; P=.02) on the web than heterosexual youth. Conclusions Given previous reports of supportive and safe web-based spaces for sexual minority youth, our findings demonstrated that sexual minority youth prefer to maintain small, close-knit web-based communities (apart from their families) to express themselves, particularly when reaching out to web-based communities to reduce loneliness. Future longitudinal studies could determine any bidirectional influences of mental well-being and social media use in sexual minorities during this difficult developmental period.

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BACKGROUND The early adolescent years are marked by pervasive self- and peer-regulation regarding gender and sexuality norms, which can affect mental wellbeing of sexual minority teens and tweens. During this developmental period, social technology use is also emerging as a dominant mode of communication with peers, allowing for both risk and resilient behaviors that can impact wellbeing. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this exploratory study was to examine how sexual minorities in middle school use social technologies, who they are connected to and for what purposes, and associations with mental wellbeing, compared to their heterosexual peers. METHODS In our cross-sectional survey study of 1034 early adolescents aged 10-16 (average age=12.7) from 4 middle school sites in the Northeast US, we conducted an exploratory study comparing sexual minorities (24% of sample) to their heterosexual peers with an 80% response rate. RESULTS Sexual minorities report having smaller networks on their favorite social media site (B=-.57, p<.001), and were less often responding positively when friends share good news (B=-.35, p=.002) and trying to make friends feel better when sharing bad news (B=-.30, p=.014). However, sexual minorities more often reported joining a group or online community to make themselves feel less alone (B=.28, p=.003) unlike heterosexual youth. Sexual minorities had higher averages of loneliness and social isolation (B=.19, p<.001) than heterosexual students. Sexual minorities were also twice as likely to have tried to harm themselves in the past (B=.81, OR=2.24, p<.001) and more likely to have symptoms that reach the CESD-based definition of depression (B=0.15, OR= 1.16, p<.001). About 39% of sexual minorities had no one to talk to about their sexual orientation. Sexual minorities were 1.5 times more likely to have joined a social media site their parents would disapprove (B=.41, OR=1.50, p=.004) and they were more likely to report seeing online videos related to self-harm (B=.33, OR=1.39, p=.016) than heterosexual youth. CONCLUSIONS Future longitudinal studies could determine any bidirectional influences of mental wellbeing and social technology use in sexual minorities during this difficult developmental period. Given prior reports of supportive and safe online spaces for sexual minority youth, our findings demonstrated that sexual minority youth prefer to maintain small, close-knit online communities (apart from their families) to express themselves, particularly when reaching out to online communities to reduce loneliness.