Transgender youths’ experiences of social media
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative study to explore transgender youths’ experiences of using social media
IRAS ID
195881
Contact name
Xinyi Lee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Essex
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
There is currently a lack of research into psychosocial protective factors for transgender youths. Understanding what protects this group from psychological difficulties is important, especially for clinical services which provide support and treatment to transgender youths. The rise of use of the internet in recent decades along with social media and communication platforms has created an opportunity for transgender individuals to seek out a common alternative identity which may reduce the sense of societal pressure to fit in to a particular gender role dictated by biological sex. The aim of this research is to look at how popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Tumblr, have shaped transgender youths’ sense of gender identity. Individual interviews will be carried out with up to 15 transgender youths to explore their experiences of using these social media platforms.
Participants will be able to speak English fluently; Self-identified as transgender; aged 14 and above; use at least one social media platform (e.g. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.); willing to talk about and engage with the research topic.
Participants who do not have access to the Internet or do not use any form of social media will be excluded.
Up to 15 participants will be recruited via the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which provides a psychological support service for people up to 18 years old, and through social media outlets. Individual interviews conducted either in the Tavistock clinic or in participants' own homes will last approximately an hour. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed by the researcher and a thematic analysis approach will be used to analyse the data.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
16/WA/0078
Date of REC Opinion
1 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion