Investigating Social Support and Expectations for the Future across Sexual Minority and Straight Youth
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Future Expectations
Social Support
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Youth with more positive expectations for their futures (PFE) tend to report better mental health and increased wellbeing. Previous research shows that experiencing support from one's family, and to a lesser extent, one's peers, is associated with more PFE. Little to no research has investigated this relationship in LGBTQ+ youth, though they experience a unique sociocultural context that makes generalizing previous findings complicated. We addressed this gap in the research by conducting a secondary data analysis of Waves I-II (1994-96) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 20,747 U.S. adolescents in grades 7-12). In particular, we investigated whether associations between two kinds of peer support (peer social activity and perceiving friends as caring) and future expectations were the same or different for sexual minority (LGB) and non-LGB youth, and if peer support mattered more at different levels of family support. Regression modelling found that, with the exception of expectations to obtain middle-class family income by age 30, LGB identity did not moderate relationships between peer support and PFE (qs>.05). Across all youth, perceiving friends as caring mattered more for PFE than greater peer social activity (qs<.001). We also found no evidence of significant interactions between peer and family support (qs>.05). Results suggest that peer support predictors of PFE largely do not differ by LGB status or family support level in this sample. Future work to test these relationships in a contemporary, sexual and gender minority specific cohort is necessary.