Gay male teenagers use adult hookup apps to get buddies, partners
Gay, bisexual teenager boys on adult hookup apps almost certainly going to look for HIV screening
CHICAGO – Although hookup apps need users become 18 or older, a brand new northwestern medication research unearthed that significantly more than 50 % of intimately active homosexual and bisexual men many years 14 to 17 met male intimate partners on apps such as for example Grindr and Scruff.
It had been typical of these teenagers to utilize the apps to get in touch with buddies and discover brand brand new homosexual, bisexual and queer buddies and boyfriends, which sheds new light on whom uses adult male hookup apps and exactly why.
The research ended up being posted today, might 18, into the Journal of Adolescent wellness. It’s the first known study to report that gay and bisexual teenage guys utilize intercourse and dating apps designed for adult men to get male lovers. The apps offer users having a digital networking room designed for homosexual and bisexual guys and over come the requirement to find out a possible partner’s or sexuality that is friend’s.
52.5% The portion of homosexual and bisexual men many years 14 to 17 whom utilize adult apps such as for example Grindr and Scruff
These features may be attractive to homosexual and bisexual adolescent boys that are not as available about their intimate identification, who possess an inferior pool of prospective lovers when compared with their heterosexual peers and who’re navigating dating and intercourse with same-gender lovers for the time that is first.
“While this research highlights that hookup apps pose some dangers, we had been pleased to discover that there are lots of good means youth utilize these apps which help them feel well informed and comfortable inside their sex,” said author that is first Macapagal, research associate teacher of medical social sciences during the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority overall health at Northwestern University Feinberg class of Medicine.