David De Coninck
KU Leuven
Leen d'Haenens
KU Leuven
With the growing visibility of the LGBTQ community, many scholarly insights regarding gender differences are quickly becoming outdated, or, at the very least, yield a limited perspective. Especially among today’s young people, a growing number identify with a sexual or gender identity that does not align with previous categorisations. One example are non-binary youth who experience gender in a way that is not part of the gender binary. The digital development of young people is one area where these new gender identities are highly relevant. Although information on LGBTQ youth is limited, preliminary data indicates they spend up to 45 minutes more online on an average day than non-LGBTQ youth (url: https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/Out_Online_Full_Report_2013.pdf).
Because of the specific ways in which they use the internet, these youths are confronted with various risks (e.g., mis- and disinformation, sexual imagery) that may cause harm. Digital skills are commonly considered to be a key protective factor against such digital risks. Although various studies into digital skills and digital activities among youth have been conducted, no studies have considered differences by the multidimensional interpretation of gender. The first wave of the ySKILLS longitudinal survey provides the potential to fill this gap.
Analyses on the ySKILLS data indicate that digital skills of non-binary youth closely mirror the skills level of boys for three out of five subdimensions of digital skills: technical and operational skills, programming skills, and information navigation and processing skills. For content creation skills, non-binary youth reported higher skills than boys and girls. No significant differences were found between non-binary youth, boys, and girls in terms of communication and interaction skills.
As for digital activities, non-binary youth used digital technologies significantly more than boys and girls for the purposes of content creation and to look up information regarding mental or physical health. They also went online for entertainment purposes more frequently than girls did, and used online technologies to cultivate social relationships more frequently than boys did.
Analysis of variance of digital skills, digital activities, and internet use by gender
| Mean scores | ||
Boy (n = 3,119) | Girl (n = 2,991) | Non-binary (n = 106) | |
Digital skills (1-5) |
|
|
|
Technological/operational skills | 4.36 | 4.05** | 4.32 |
Programming | 2.49 | 2.12** | 2.54 |
Information navigation/processing | 4.09 | 3.78** | 4.03 |
Communication and interaction | 4.46 | 4.49 | 4.48 |
Content creation/production | 3.95** | 3.84*** | 4.21 |
Digital activities (1-6) |
|
|
|
Online learning | 2.60+ | 2.64 | 2.8 |
Social relationships | 3.45* | 3.67 | 3.70 |
Entertainment | 4.32 | 3.83*** | 4.50 |
Content creation | 2.24*** | 2.08*** | 2.83 |
Health use | 1.73*** | 2.05*** | 2.62 |
Internet use (1-9) | 5.78*** | 6.11*** | 6.95 |
Note: p + < .10; p * < .05; p ** < .01; p *** < .001. Asterisks indicate if significant differences were found between scores of boys/girls and non-binary youth based on Tukey post-hoc testing. Significant differences between boys and girls are not indicated here.
Here's our two takeaways
- The main takeaway is that non-binary youth both use more digital technologies and feel more skilled at digital content creation than youth who identify within the gender binary. In a qualitative study on the identity development of LGBTQ youth, Craig and McInroy (2014) (url: https://doi.org/10.1080/19359705.2013.777007) found that new media enabled them to access resources relevant to their identity, safely explore their identity in part thanks to these media’s anonymity, easily engage with other LGBTQ members, and (start the process) of digitally coming out. Although there are a number of risks related to these new media as well, the advantages to their identity development outweigh the drawbacks. While new media have become a key element in youth identity development in general, they are particularly important to LGBTQ youth. Given the key advantages that these media offer – specifically, new media that allow LGBTQ youth to create their own content and interact with other members (e.g., TikTok, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram) –, it is then not surprising that they make more use of them (and as such, report a higher skill level) than boys and girls.
- A second takeaway refers to the higher use of digital technologies for looking up health information among non-binary youth than among either boys or girls. Various studies and official statistics have shown that members of the LGBTQ community report greater psychological distress, mental health problems, and suicide ideation than non-LGBTQ members. Particularly for LGBTQ youth, who are in a key developmental phase of their lives but faced with the additional psychosocial strain of potential stigma and bullying, information of and access to necessary and relevant health services is paramount. Aside from support for mental health care, non-binary youth may also search for information regarding gender-affirming care (e.g., hormone therapy, surgery, sexual reproduction). Our study clearly shows that non-binary youths use digital technologies for this purpose more frequently than those who identify within the gender binary. This highlights the need to make digital access to information about these health services widely available to LGBTQ youth. Clark et al. (2018) found that non-binary youth did not only struggle with accessing gender-affirming care, but also that information regarding this type of health care was difficult to retrieve for them. Mis- and disinformation regarding this type of care also presents a significant risk for LGBTQ youth.
In conclusion, data from the first wave of the ySKILLS school survey provides first insights into the different development of non-binary youth compared to boys and girls. These data provide more support for the idea that youths who do not identify within the gender binary increasingly constitute a social group that is clearly distinct from the ‘traditional’ gender binary in both digital skill level and use of digital technologies. Despite some forays into the internet and social media use of LGBTQ youth for identity formation, very little information exists on the digital development of these youths. The ySKILLS team plans further research on this important topic.
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