Social Support Networks for LGBT Young Adults: Low Cost Strategies for Positive Adjustment
Abstract
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and young adults are known to have compromised physical and mental health, and family rejection has been found to be an important risk factor. Yet few studies have examined the positive role that support from parents, friends, and the community have for LGBT young adults. In a cross‐sectional study of 245 LGBT non‐Latino White and Latino young adults (ages 21–25) in the United States, sexuality‐related social support was examined in association with measures of adjustment in young adulthood. Family, friend, and community support were strong predictors of positive outcomes, including life situation, self‐esteem, and LGBT esteem. However, family acceptance had the strongest overall influence when other forms of support were considered. Implications for the unique and concurrent forms of social support for LGBT youth and young adult adjustment are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126 · see citing works
Meyer, I. H. (2003) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674 · Cited by 14,736 · see citing works
Resilience in the Face of Catastrophe: Optimism, Personality, and Coping in the Kosovo Crisis
Riolli, L., Savicki, V., & Cepani, A. (2002) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb02765.x · Cited by 2,166 · see citing works
Russell, S. T., Ryan, C., Toomey, R. B., Diaz, R. M., & Sanchez, J. (2011) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00583.x · Cited by 526 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Youth
Russell, S. T., & Fish, J. N. (2016) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093153 · Cited by 1,276 · see citing works
Self-citationBerger, M. N., Taba, M., Marino, J. L., Lim, M. S. C., & Skinner, S. R. (2022) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/38449 · Cited by 226 · see citing works
Watson, R. J., Veale, J. F., & Saewyc, E. M. (2017) · International Journal of Eating Disorders · doi:10.1002/eat.22627 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Future directions in understanding and addressing mental health among LGBTQ youth
Fish, J. N. (2020) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1080/15374416.2020.1815207 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Toomey, R. B., & Anhalt, K. (2016) · Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity · doi:10.1037/sgd0000192 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Igarashi, Y., Staples, J., Vigil, S., Pero, G., Gardner, R., Thomat, A., & Abascal, L. (2022) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2022.03.005 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Coming Out Queer: Sexual and Romantic Exploration and Identity Development of LGBQ+ College Students
Lamont, E., & Roach, T. (2025) · Social Currents · doi:10.1177/23294965241285469 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Snapp, S. D., Watson, R. J., Russell, S. T., Diaz, R. M., & Ryan, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- San Francisco State University
- San Francisco State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Snapp, Shannon D.
- Venue
- Family Relations
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-06-05
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 420-430
- ISSN
- 0197-6664 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-3729
- OpenAlex
- W1565455326
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 25.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Family Relations (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychosocial Factors Impacting Youth
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- social support networks, family acceptance, family rejection, self-esteem, peer support, community support, adjustment, Latino young adults
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
