What shapes LGBTQ university students' information seeking and sharing in queer online communities? A mixed methods study of influencing factors

Purpose This study identifies and examines the perceived importance of influencing factors shaping Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) university students’ information seeking and sharing in queer online communities on social media. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory sequential mixed methods approach was adopted. Data were collected through interviews informed by participant diaries and an online survey. Qualitative data were analyzed using open coding and constant comparison to identify and categorize influencing factors. Quantitative data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and a Friedman test with post hoc comparisons to examine differences in perceived importance within and across factor categories. Findings Six categories of influencing factors were identified: informational, personal, interpersonal, communal, technical, and environmental factors. Informational factors, particularly information relevance and credibility, were perceived as highly important in shaping LGBTQ participants’ information seeking and sharing. Category rankings further indicated that informational and communal factors were generally perceived as more important than technical and environmental factors, although not all pairwise differences among the six categories were statistically significant. Originality/value This study is among the first efforts to examine influencing factors shaping LGBTQ information behavior. An ecological sociotechnical framework was proposed that conceptualizes LGBTQ information seeking and sharing as shaped by interconnected informational, personal, social, technological, and environmental influences.