Network and Proximity Effects on LGBTQ Youth’s Psychological Outcomes during a Camp Intervention

ABSTRACT

Research has found a tendency for youth’s psychological states to influence their friendship development, and vice versa. Whether this occurs among LGBTQ youth in the context of identity-affirming intervention programming has not been established. The current study provides a longitudinal assessment of self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and anxiety in a network of 238 youth ages 12 to 18 participating in a summer camp for young LGBTQ people. Results showed youth experienced significant increases in self-esteem and decreases in depressive symptoms and anxiety at camp. Peer proximity based on cabin assignment influenced youth’s depressive symptoms over time. The network processes of peer selection and influence did not significantly affect psychological outcomes. Our findings highlight the impact of affirming programming on the self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and anxiety of LGBTQ youth and the influence of intervention-based proximity on youth’s depressive symptoms over time.

Notes

1. RSiena currently does not allow continuous dependent measures. Eight to ten categories are recommended by Ripley et al. (2020, p. 27). Previous work examining non-behavioral dependent variables using RSiena has similarly discretized mental health outcomes like depression (e.g., Zhao et al., 2020). The results are consistent when we use quartiles as the discrete cutoffs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Southern California.