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The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use

BACKGROUND: Adolescence and emerging adulthood are critical periods for an individual's sexual identity development. The internet has become a primary avenue for gay identity exploration. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the internet in Chinese young gay male's sexual i...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Aidi, Reynolds, Nancy R., Huang, Chongmei, Tan, Simin, Yang, Guoli, Yan, Jin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9486466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36148342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.954674
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author Zhang, Aidi
Reynolds, Nancy R.
Huang, Chongmei
Tan, Simin
Yang, Guoli
Yan, Jin
author_facet Zhang, Aidi
Reynolds, Nancy R.
Huang, Chongmei
Tan, Simin
Yang, Guoli
Yan, Jin
author_sort Zhang, Aidi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Adolescence and emerging adulthood are critical periods for an individual's sexual identity development. The internet has become a primary avenue for gay identity exploration. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the internet in Chinese young gay male's sexual identity development. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 37 gay males aged 16 to 29. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. RESULTS: Three categories of identity development in relation to use of the internet were identified: (1) Gay identity confirming, which includes verifying same-sex attraction and connecting the attraction feeling to gay identity through consumption of pornography, Tanbi (boy's love) materials, and searching for information online. (2) Gay identity practicing, includes interacting with the gay community to gain understandings of gay subcultures and make close gay friends, engaging in same-sex sexual and romantic relationship development through online group and interpersonal interactions. The internet practice impact on an individual's cognition and behavior by presenting same-sex sexual contact is normal and common, facilitating longing for a romantic relationship, and facilitating relationship development; and (3) Gay identity coping, includes increasing self-acceptance of gay identity, gaining a sense of belonging in the gay community, increasing autonomy in sexual and romantic relationship development, and growing consideration of coming out to parents. Young gay males' coping efficacy was gained through the lessons learned from identity practice. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that an individual's internet practice facilitates gay identity confirmation, enriches identity practice, and promotes the transition from self-identification to identity disclosure and integration. Internet practice also threatens to young gay males' sexual risk behavior, emotional hurts from failed romantic relationships. Interventions including sexual identity education and healthy internet use strategies need to be developed tailored to the developmental characteristics.
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spelling pubmed-94864662022-09-21 The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use Zhang, Aidi Reynolds, Nancy R. Huang, Chongmei Tan, Simin Yang, Guoli Yan, Jin Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Adolescence and emerging adulthood are critical periods for an individual's sexual identity development. The internet has become a primary avenue for gay identity exploration. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the internet in Chinese young gay male's sexual identity development. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 37 gay males aged 16 to 29. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. RESULTS: Three categories of identity development in relation to use of the internet were identified: (1) Gay identity confirming, which includes verifying same-sex attraction and connecting the attraction feeling to gay identity through consumption of pornography, Tanbi (boy's love) materials, and searching for information online. (2) Gay identity practicing, includes interacting with the gay community to gain understandings of gay subcultures and make close gay friends, engaging in same-sex sexual and romantic relationship development through online group and interpersonal interactions. The internet practice impact on an individual's cognition and behavior by presenting same-sex sexual contact is normal and common, facilitating longing for a romantic relationship, and facilitating relationship development; and (3) Gay identity coping, includes increasing self-acceptance of gay identity, gaining a sense of belonging in the gay community, increasing autonomy in sexual and romantic relationship development, and growing consideration of coming out to parents. Young gay males' coping efficacy was gained through the lessons learned from identity practice. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that an individual's internet practice facilitates gay identity confirmation, enriches identity practice, and promotes the transition from self-identification to identity disclosure and integration. Internet practice also threatens to young gay males' sexual risk behavior, emotional hurts from failed romantic relationships. Interventions including sexual identity education and healthy internet use strategies need to be developed tailored to the developmental characteristics. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9486466/ /pubmed/36148342 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.954674 Text en Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Reynolds, Huang, Tan, Yang and Yan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Zhang, Aidi
Reynolds, Nancy R.
Huang, Chongmei
Tan, Simin
Yang, Guoli
Yan, Jin
The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title_full The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title_fullStr The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title_full_unstemmed The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title_short The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use
title_sort process of contemporary gay identity development in china: the influence of internet use
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9486466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36148342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.954674
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