"I'll Walk with You": LGBTQ+ Individuals and Religious Belonging.

Research on LGBTQ+ individuals, belonging, and religiosity has been mixed. Some studies have illustrated the ways religion can harm LGBTQ+ individuals while others suggest religion has positive impacts. In the current study, we sought to understand this complexity by examining the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who have been or currently are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e. Mormon, LDS). A thematic analysis of 100 interviews with LGBTQ+ individuals currently or previously affiliated with the Church revealed various ways they feel belonging or the lack thereof in Latter-day Saint congregations and communities. These include sharing physical space, being invited to and included at events, receiving gifts or acts of service, seeing others' safety signals, hearing accepting and character-affirming language, and having others listen to them and give them voice. With the intent of fostering belonging, we discuss implications of this research for church communities and propose the belonging in practice: LGBTQ+ and religion model.

Masters of Media: A longitudinal study of parental media efficacy, media monitoring, and child problematic media use across early childhood in the United States.

The development of problematic media use in early childhood is not well understood. The current study examined long-term associations between parental media efficacy, parental media monitoring, and problematic media use across a three-year period of time during early childhood. Participants included 432 parents who reported on their own parenting and their child's use of problematic media once a year for three years (M age of child at Wave 1 = 29.68 months, SD = 3.73 months). Results revealed that early parental media efficacy predicted lower levels of child problematic media use over time. Restrictive media monitoring was also related to lower levels of child problematic media use over time. Additionally, general parental efficacy was related to parental media efficacy and lower child problematic media use, both at the cross-sectional and longitudinal levels. Discussion focuses on encouraging early parental media efficacy (and exploring other potential mechanisms) as a way to mitigate the development of problematic media use over time.

Parents' judgments of children's gender-typed play indicate qualities of the early-life caregiving environment.

Play is critical for children's development but is the target of significant gender stereotyping. Early in life, parents must navigate these stereotypes on behalf of their children. This study examined typologies of caregivers' judgments toward their infants' future engagement with toys and activities considered typical of same- and different-gender peers, and whether these judgments indicated qualities of the child-rearing environment. We conducted a latent profile analysis on a sample of 501 families with infant children in a large city in the Western United States (501 mothers, 388 fathers; 69% White, 16% Latinx, 8% African American). Results showed that parents could be classified as androgynous, stereotyped, counterstereotyped, or gender-impartial in their preferences for their child's toys and activities. Mothers who displayed androgynous and counterstereotyped preferences-primarily conveying approval different-gender-typed play-were rated higher on objective assessments of the quality of the home environment and parent-child interactions. How parents orient to cultural gendered messages for children's play may have implications for the overall parenting environment. We discuss implications for research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Analysis of Social Media Use, Mental Health, and Gender Identity Among US Youths.

Importance: Mental health among children and adolescents is a critical public health issue, and transgender and gender nonbinary youths are at an even greater risk. Social media has been consistently associated with youth mental health, but little is known about how gender identity interacts with this association. Objective: To use a risk and resilience approach to examine the association between social media use and mental health among transgender, gender nonbinary, and cisgender youths. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study analyzed data collected from an online survey between May and August 2021. Participants included a random sample of US youths; eligibility requirements included being aged 10 to 17 years and residing in the US. Statistical analysis was performed from February to April 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures: Social media use (time, type of use, favorite site, social comparisons, mindfulness, taking intentional breaks, cleaning and curating feeds, problematic use, and media literacy programs at their school) and mental health (depression, emotional problems, conduct problems, and body image) as main outcomes. Results: Participants included 1231 youths aged 10 to 17 years from a national quota sample from the United States; 675 (54.8%) identified as cisgender female, 479 (38.9%) as cisgender male, and 77 (6.3%) as transgender, gender nonbinary, or other; 4 (0.3%) identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, 111 (9.0%) as Asian, 185 (15.0%) as Black, 186 (15.1%) as Hispanic or Latinx, 1 (0.1%) as Pacific Islander, 703 (57.1%) as White, and 41 (3.3%) as mixed and/or another race or ethnicity. Gender identity moderated both the strength and the direction of multiple associations between social media practices and mental health: active social media use (eg, emotional problems: B = 1.82; 95% CI, 0.16 to 3.49; P = .03), cleaning and/or curating social media feeds (eg, depression: B = -0.91; 95% CI, -1.98 to -0.09; P = .03), and taking intentional breaks (eg, depression: B = 1.03; 95% CI, 0.14 to 1.92; P = .02). Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study of gender identity, social media, and mental health, gender identity was associated with youths' experiences of social media in ways that may have distinct implications for mental health. These results suggest that research about social media effects on youths should attend to gender identity; directing children and adolescents to spend less time on social media may backfire for those transgender and gender nonbinary youths who are intentional about creating safe spaces on social media that may not exist in their offline world.