Video Gaming and Psychological Well-Being Among Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth in Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia: Protocol for a LEVEL UP! Cross-Sectional Survey and Screenshot Elicitation Interview Study.

BACKGROUND: Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth experience unique minority stressors that can have a significant impact on their well-being. Many SGD youth use digital technologies to offset these stressors and develop resilience. To date, the role of video gaming in the well-being of SGD youth has not been explored.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the LEVEL UP! study are to (1) investigate the motivations, preferences, behaviors, and experiences of SGD youth as they relate to video game playing and engagement in online video gaming communities; (2) explore how SGD people are represented in video games and how these portrayals are appraised by SGD youth video gamers; (3) identify how video games can support protective factors and processes that contribute to resilience among SGD youth video gamers; (4) develop recommendations and resources (eg, affirming media guides) to make video gaming safer for SGD youth; and (5) demonstrate the utility of video game screenshots as a novel and ecologically valid data source for eliciting discussion from SGD youth about the significance of video gaming in their lives.

METHODS: A multipronged, targeted, web-based recruitment approach (social media-based convenience sampling, collaborating with video gaming influencers, Prolific panel recruitment) will be used to recruit approximately 2500 SGD youth aged 14 to 29 years in Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia to complete a mixed methods, cross-sectional survey hosted on Qualtrics. Key quantitative variables of interest include video gaming habits, preferences, play styles, and the psychological impacts of positive and negative video gaming experiences. Qualitative survey data sources include a brief screenshot elicitation prompt, recall of video gaming experiences, and appraisal of video game content. Canadian participants sampled from the survey will be invited to participate in a follow-up digital screenshot elicitation interview over Zoom to further elaborate on these experiences. Proposed quantitative analyses include exploratory factor analysis, one-way ANOVAs, correlational analyses, and multivariate regressions. Anticipated qualitative analyses include multimodal coding of survey screenshot elicitation data and constructivist grounded theory analysis of the digital screenshot elicitation interview data. Explanatory and convergent mixed methods analyses combining quantitative and qualitative findings are also planned.

RESULTS: The LEVEL UP! study was funded in March 2022, and data collection is expected to occur between October and December 2026, with initial results published in 2027.

CONCLUSIONS: LEVEL UP! will provide crucial insight into an underresearched digital subculture that may support the resilience of SGD youth. Opportunities for knowledge translation targeting SGD youth, caregivers, and video game industry professionals are suggested.