Social Media Creations of Community and Gender Minority Stress in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adults
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis is a clearly written, well researched and argued, and significant paper.
I have a few suggestions that may be worth considering to polish it further:
While the sample size may not allow for such a breakdown and still preserve participant anonymity, if possible it would be interesting to have some breakdown of results by age. This seems like a particularly relevant category in relation to facility with new communications technology and style of usage. Perhaps keep in mind for future research.
Perhaps also employment status would be relevant to the amount of time people have available for social media use. Perhaps keep in mind for future research
Table 1 is difficult to read. Does the first row tell us that 20 people identified as non-binary and 2 of them also identified as men and 5 also identified as women, and 2 as other? Does row 2 tell us that 5 people who identified as men also identified as women and 1 as other? Etc.?
Please provide translations of acronyms in the body of the text, or in a footnote, e.g. for DIY GAHT, DIY HRT p8, GMSM p, 11
Page 11, lines 508-509 meaning unclear: ...communities...which have alternative points for comparison and evaluation...
Page 11, line 522, "it is noted" is slightly ambiguous. Is it noted in the literature cited or in the data gathered for this study?
Page 11, lines 529-530 "...this study describes how the community can provide safe spaces.." This seems to refer to a report of results somewhere else within the article, but I don't recall seeing that.
Page 12 line 556 I recommend pluralizing "a more intersectional approach" to more intersectional approaches. "Intersectionality" takes many forms.
Page 12, lines 561, 562 the intended contrast is unclear, "both directly via experiences such as harassment and indirectly via online media." I assume the direct harassment also occurs online.
Page 12, line 590. Define "transmedicalism" for the uninitiated reader.
Page 13, lines 610- 613. I think I know the kind of "significant social change" to which you refer here, but the reference may be a bit cryptic for some readers. I assume you mean changes in levels of expressed hostility towards transgender people and public campaigning and changes in regulations and law consistent with that fear and hostility. You also mention that TGD people in the UK may be experiencing greater amounts of harassment and transphobia. This is ambiguous between greater than at other times in the past, or greater than in other countries at present. My sense is that this is currently a very widespread phenomenon. Perhaps there is research that supports this sense. You are right that undertaking such further research would be valuable as well.
I have also added some minor issues of syntax or typography in the comments for the editors, copied here:
Page 8, line 364 add a comma after social media
Page 9, line 413 who should be whom
Page 9, line 426 There may be a typo, perhaps it was in the original data: is can be. If it is the author's typo, probably delete is.
Page 12, lines 581,582. Perhaps add punctuation or rephrase to make the meaning clearer: This is a particularly difficult issue setting boundaries..." Perhaps rephrase: It is a particularly difficult issue to set boundaries and limits ...."
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript and for the helpful feedback. Please find the detailed responses and corresponding revisions below.
Comment 1:
This is a clearly written, well researched and argued, and significant paper.
I have a few suggestions that may be worth considering to polish it further:
While the sample size may not allow for such a breakdown and still preserve participant anonymity, if possible it would be interesting to have some breakdown of results by age. This seems like a particularly relevant category in relation to facility with new communications technology and style of usage. Perhaps keep in mind for future research.
Perhaps also employment status would be relevant to the amount of time people have available for social media use. Perhaps keep in mind for future research
Response 1:
Thank you for the comment, yes I believe that these would be interesting factors to keep in mind for future research, the ages of participants are included on each quote. I have also added the following sentence to the discussion [Page 13 line 624 – “Furthermore it may benefit research to consider employment status in the future as those who are not currently employed may have more time available to use social media.”]
Comment 2:
Table 1 is difficult to read. Does the first row tell us that 20 people identified as non-binary and 2 of them also identified as men and 5 also identified as women, and 2 as other? Does row 2 tell us that 5 people who identified as men also identified as women and 1 as other? Etc.?
Response 2: I have noted an error which may be causing confusion where row3 column 2 had a number in, I have removed this. Hopefully, this makes the table easier to understand.
Comment 3:
Please provide translations of acronyms in the body of the text, or in a footnote, e.g. for DIY GAHT, DIY HRT p8, GMSM p, 11
Response 3:
Thank you for identifying missing longform versions of acronyms I have added long-form versions of the acronyms at their first appearance.
Comment 4:
Page 11, lines 508-509 meaning unclear: ...communities...which have alternative points for comparison and evaluation...
Response 4:
Yes absolutely agree thank you for this I have re-written to make clearer [Page 11, line 510 - “The GMSM describes how forming communities around minority identity can improve mental health and facilitate pride in identity [31,32,48,49]. This is suggested to be in part because these communities provide individuals with comparison and evaluation points which are less likely to adhere to cisnormative/heteronormative values [31,32,48,49].”]
Comment 5:
Page 11, line 522, "it is noted" is slightly ambiguous. Is it noted in the literature cited or in the data gathered for this study?
Response 5:
It is in the data gathered therefore have written to be less ambiguous [Page 11 line 524 -“Particularly the results demonstrate that regardless of whether this community support was available or not in the offline lives of participants, social media was a valuable tool for connecting TGD people with community-specific support.”]
Comment 6:
Page 11, lines 529-530 "...this study describes how the community can provide safe spaces.." This seems to refer to a report of results somewhere else within the article, but I don't recall seeing that. –
Response 6:
These are in reference to 3rd quote in section 3.1.1.
“Many participants talked about access to community spaces in terms of being able to have a place online where they could be themselves without fear of retribution or harassment. One participant described their online space in the following way:
“I’ve found so much community, support and love online and have carved out my own little corner of the internet for my friends and I to exist freely” (Age:23, Gender: Man & Nonbinary, Sexuality: Bisexual & Asexual, ASMU per weekday: 2-2.5 hrs)
And Additionallly in 3.1.2.1
“Many participants described how they would take action to keep themselves safe on social media. Responses often explained how they would take proactive measures to avoid harassment. One of the most regular proactive measures participants took was simply staying within the TGD/queer community spaces which they had accessed through social media:
“Largely, by staying in queer spaces, it has been fun and supportive.” (Age:25, Gender: Nonbinary, Sexuality: Queer, ASMU per weekday: 2-2.5 hrs)”
Comment 7:
Page 12 line 556 I recommend pluralizing "a more intersectional approach" to more intersectional approaches. "Intersectionality" takes many forms.
Response 7:
Excellent point thank you yes have pluralised [Page 12 line 559 - “further research could well include examining this from more intersectional approaches”]
Comment 8:
Page 12, lines 561, 562 the intended contrast is unclear, "both directly via experiences such as harassment and indirectly via online media." I assume the direct harassment also occurs online.
Response 8:
The contrast is that one is happening directly to a person i.e. a TGD person being harassed themselves while indirectly refers to seeing or reading about trans-negative media, have added some clarification in the phrasing [Page 12 line 566-“TGD people to transphobia, both directly via experiences such as personal experiences of harassment online and indirectly via exposure to online trans-negative media”]
Comment 9:
Page 12, line 590. Define "transmedicalism" for the uninitiated reader.
Response 9:
Thank you for noting this I have added definition [Page 12, line 595-“transmedicalism (the belief that one must experience gender dysphoria to be considered transgender rather than simply having a gender identity which differs from sex assigned at birth[58])”]
Comment 10:
Page 13, lines 610- 613. I think I know the kind of "significant social change" to which you refer here, but the reference may be a bit cryptic for some readers. I assume you mean changes in levels of expressed hostility towards transgender people and public campaigning and changes in regulations and law consistent with that fear and hostility. You also mention that TGD people in the UK may be experiencing greater amounts of harassment and transphobia. This is ambiguous between greater than at other times in the past, or greater than in other countries at present. My sense is that this is currently a very widespread phenomenon. Perhaps there is research that supports this sense. You are right that undertaking such further research would be valuable as well.
Response 10:
Thank you for this comment yes I agree, I have added some clarification to make this less ambiguous [Page 13 line 617 -“However, the UK has continued to experience social and political change that are negatively impacting TGD people, with examples including a government ban on puberty blockers for young TGD people and increases in anti-trans sentiment [58,59]. Therefore, TGD people from the UK may also be experiencing a greater amount of harassment and exposure to transphobia than previously in the UK. Therefore, future research with a broader scope would be recommended, widening participation criteria to include those outside of the UK, to examine if these findings are consistent across other TGD populations.”]
Comment 11:
I have also added some minor issues of syntax or typography in the comments for the editors, copied here:
Page 8, line 364 add a comma after social media
Page 9, line 413 who should be whom
Page 9, line 426 There may be a typo, perhaps it was in the original data: is can be. If it is the author's typo, probably delete is
Page 12, lines 581,582. Perhaps add punctuation or rephrase to make the meaning clearer: This is a particularly difficult issue setting boundaries..." Perhaps rephrase: It is a particularly difficult issue to set boundaries and limits ...
Response 11:
Thank you for these, these have been corrected as recommended.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThank you for the opportunity to read your paper, Social Media Creations of Community and Gender Minority Stress. I was particularly impressed by the methodology of the paper. I also think the gaps that were identified – particularly studying TGD adults and multiple online platforms – are an important addition to the literature. However, as it currently stands, these additions do not really shine through in most of the text. For instance, in the introduction, these unique additions are buried until the end, thus the authors lose their chance to craft an introduction that sets us up to understand how the paper is adding to the literature and how it might build on prior work. Strengthen your paper by highlighting these unique additions throughout the title, abstract, introduction, and results sections.
Title/Abstract
1. Capitalize “creations”.
2. A major addition of your study is looking at adults. Emphasize that in the title.
Introduction
3. I know it is a little different from how papers are normally organized, but I would like your gaps to come much sooner in the introduction. As it stands, I read through the entire introduction thinking that this research was not going to add anything that is has not already been covered in current literature. The importance of bringing up these gaps early is that I would like to see them covered more thoroughly in the intro. For example, is there any literature on how TGD adults might interact with social media differently than TGD youth? If not TGD-specific, then at least more information on how we might expect adult engagement with social media to be different than that of youth?
Methods
4. The gender identity table is concise and informative.
5. I particularly like the information and care taken about the insider researcher section.
6. Good description of template coding.
Results
7. In line with the tenor of my comments in the other sections, the themes that you generated do not seem to add much to what we already know about TGD social media use (for a few more articles on TGD youth social media use, see below). Perhaps the additions made by this research can be emphasized by highlighting on the unique aspects of this research – the gaps that it fills.
a. Your “mitigation” themes also could be emphasized as I am not aware of these represented in prior work.
Discussion
8. As it stands, the majority of this seems to be repeating common themes from prior TGD social media work. I believe this section can also be strengthened by highlighting how your findings add to what is already known. I recognize times you already do this (e.g., lines 503-505), but if all that is gained by your study is saying “the same processes that happen for youth also happen for adults” this paper could be much shorter.
9. The paragraph about mitigating negative effects that starts on line 584 is where I start to see some real additions to the literature.
References
- Berger et al. 2022: Social Media Use and Health and Well-being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Youth: Systematic Review
- CB Fisher et al., 2024: Social Media: A double-edged sword for LGBTQ+ Youth
- Herrmann et al., 2024: Social media use and experiences among transgender and gender diverse adolescents
Author Response
Thank you for taking the time to review this manuscript and for the helpful and insightful feedback. Please find the corrections and responses included below.
Comment 1:
Capitalize “creations”.
Response 1:
Thank you for spotting, this has been corrected in the title.
Comment 2:
A major addition of your study is looking at adults. Emphasize that in the title
Response 2:
Thank you for this note I have changed the title to reflect this - ["Social Media Creations of Community and Gender Minority Stress in Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults"]
Comment 3:
I know it is a little different from how papers are normally organized, but I would like your gaps to come much sooner in the introduction. As it stands, I read through the entire introduction thinking that this research was not going to add anything that is has not already been covered in current literature. The importance of bringing up these gaps early is that I would like to see them covered more thoroughly in the intro. For example, is there any literature on how TGD adults might interact with social media differently than TGD youth? If not TGD-specific, then at least more information on how we might expect adult engagement with social media to be different than that of youth?
Response 3:
Thank you for your comment, yes I agree that having these gaps earlier would make for a better reading experience, I have added two sections to the introduction to address the gaps earlier, and have removed the section addressing them later as to avoid repetition.
Have added to the introduction [Page 1 and 2 line 42 – “While there is some research which examines LGBTQ+ individuals' use of social media [16,17,21], research which specifically examines the experiences of TGD individuals in this context is less prevalent [24]. Furthermore, this research tends to focus on LGBTQ+ or TGD youth [17,21,24] and/or on specific social media platforms [20,25]. This leaves a gap in the literature as research in the general population indicates that both age [26,27,28] and the social media platforms used [29,30] may play roles in how social media can impact wellbeing/mental health [26,27,28,29,30] and how an individual engages with social media [26,27,29,30].”]
Have added to the introduction [Page 2 line 60 - “However, there is limited research examining how social media may negatively impact the wellbeing of TGD individuals outside of instances of harassment [19,34]. For example, social media makes news about social and political events much more readily available [35,36]. For TGD individuals this may include potentially distressing news such as news which paints TGD individuals in a negative light or focuses on issues which may negatively impact them. Additionally, while research examining these factors is limited, there is also a limited amount of research examining how TGD individuals attempt to address and manage negative experiences on social media. This is a particularly vital area as it would aid in identifying positive practical approaches which could be implemented for those struggling with the impact of social media.”]
Removed from the end of introduction to avoid repetition – “However, there are currently gaps in the knowledge surrounding how TGD people navigate and use social media. Current research which references the experiences of TGD people with social media often focuses on TGD youth (aged 13-18 – [30]; aged 16-26 – [25]), specific social media platforms such as Tumblr or Twitter [18; 28], specific experiences such as harassment [17,24], and moderation problems [17]. Other studies refer to social media as a factor that may impact wellbeing amidst other aspects, without this being a primary focus of the research [31,29].”
Comment 4:
The gender identity table is concise and informative.
Response 4:
Thank you for your comment
Comment 5:
I particularly like the information and care taken about the insider researcher section.
Response 5:
Thank you for your comment
Comment 6:
Good description of template coding.
Response 6:
Thank you for your comment
Comment 7:
In line with the tenor of my comments in the other sections, the themes that you generated do not seem to add much to what we already know about TGD social media use (for a few more articles on TGD youth social media use, see below). Perhaps the additions made by this research can be emphasized by highlighting on the unique aspects of this research – the gaps that it fills.
Your “mitigation” themes also could be emphasized as I am not aware of these represented in prior work.
Response 7:
Thank you for these comments, the responses and changes made to the introduction and discussion hopefully address this issue and note the more unique additions to the literature made by this study.
Comment 8:
. As it stands, the majority of this seems to be repeating common themes from prior TGD social media work. I believe this section can also be strengthened by highlighting how your findings add to what is already known. I recognize times you already do this (e.g., lines 503-505), but if all that is gained by your study is saying “the same processes that happen for youth also happen for adults” this paper could be much shorter.
Response 8:
Thank you for your comment, I have attempted to shorten sections of the discussion which deal with reflecting on how these results support prior studies findings and confirm that the same impact is present in TGD adults, while rephrasing and adding sections to highlight the more unique additions of this study.
Added a lead in earlier to highlight the key addition of protective and mitigation responses from TGD individuals [Page10 Page 11 line 496 - "One key addition to the literature by this study is in describing how TGD individuals react and manage exposure to transphobia on social media through both through proactive protective and reactive mitigation behaviours."]
Rewrote this section to be clearer and highlight the findings better [Page 11 line 499 - "Participants described the ability to access queer/TGD communities through social media as an important aspect of their social media use. These community spaces provided the opportunity to connect with others who had shared experiences within a safe environment including with those who had multiple marginalised identities (e.g. ethnicity, religion, sexuality), a finding which is echoed in research on the benefits of TGD community offline [31,32,46] and TGD youth online [17, 47]. Additionally, research with TGD youth had suggested that social media is used to explore gender identities [17,37]. The results from this study however expand on this, showing that the value of validating online spaces where identity can be explored is consistent over various age groups. Parallels can certainly be drawn between participants’ discussions of how engaging with TGD communities via social media provided validation and some protective aspects of the GMSM [31,32,48]."]
Rewrote this section to be briefer [Page 11 line 510 - "The GMSM describes how forming communities around minority identity can improve mental health and facilitate pride in identity [31,32,48,49]. This is suggested to be in part because these communities provide individuals with comparison and evaluation points which are less likely to adhere to cisnormative/heteronormative values [31,32,48,49]. In this study, participants describe how social media allowed them to observe others exploring and expressing their gender identity. This not only validated them but also allowed them to feel able to explore their own identity and celebrate any changes they made with members of the community, an example of protective pride in identity outlined by the GMSM.]
Added some clarification to strengthen the points in discussion [Page 11 line 529 - "While prior research has identified that TGD people do use social media to seek out health information [20,25,37,39], the results from this study go towards addressing a significant gap in the research, explaining why social media plays this role. This study describes how the community can provide safe spaces to ask health-related questions in a gender-affirming way and acquire information about transition resources from those who have lived experience of it. Additionally, social media played a role in providing support around finding health information due to issues experienced with the healthcare system. Participants described how non-specialist medical professionals often lacked the knowledge and resources to adequately provide support, while Transgender Health Services were considered extremely difficult to get in contact with. The findings focusing on social media-based healthcare information gathering and support address some of the gaps present in the current literature. This is done by providing a deeper understanding of why TGD individuals utilise social media to seek healthcare information and support."]
Removed from the discussion - "The importance of these communities and the safe space they provide was, however, not only in regard to a person’s TGD identity. For those who held multiple marginalised identities (e.g. ethnicity, religion, sexuality), social media played a significant role in connecting them with others who were also a part of these intersecting identities. This finding is similar to that from Gordon et al. (2023) [40], in which Black and Hispanic LGBT participants described needing to take into account racial tensions within the LGBT community. Gordon et al. (2023) [40] describes how this resulted in participants feeling safer when seeking social support on social media from LGBT people of colour. While for many, social media supplemented already existing offline connections with the TGD community, for others it was their primary link and was a pivotal factor in feeling able to come out as TGD. These cases emphasise the vital role that social media can play in the lives of TGD people by providing access to queer/TGD communities. These communities, once accessed, provide safe space within which participants could experience validation of their identities."
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe changes you made are sensible and I think the paper is in great shape!
