KMAN Publication Inc. (KMANPUB) Journal of Psychosociological Research in Family and Culture 3041-8550 In Press 2026 07 01 Silenced at Home, Visible Online: A Digital Narrative Study of How LGBTQ+ Young Adults Negotiate Family Belonging, Cultural Norms, Concealment, and Online Social Support Silenced at Home, Visible Online: A Digital Narrative Study of How LGBTQ+ Young Adults Negotiate Family Belonging, Cultural Norms, Concealment, and Online Social Support 1 22 EN Journal Article 2026 01 04 <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to explore how LGBTQ+ young adults in Canada narratively negotiate family belonging, cultural expectations, identity concealment, digital visibility, and online social support across interconnected offline and online environments.</p> <p><strong>Methods and Materials:</strong> A qualitative digital narrative design was employed with 24 LGBTQ+ young adults aged 18–29 years residing in six Canadian provinces. Participants were recruited through purposive maximum-variation sampling from LGBTQ+ organizations, educational institutions, community services, and online networks. Data were collected using a demographic and digital-use questionnaire, participant-generated digital narrative maps, and individual semi-structured online interviews lasting 75–110 minutes. Interviews examined family relationships, cultural and religious expectations, disclosure decisions, concealment strategies, online identity expression, digital safety, and experiences of social support. Data were analyzed through an integrated narrative and reflexive thematic approach involving case summaries, inductive coding, within-case interpretation, cross-case comparison, theme development, and analysis of divergent accounts.</p> <p><strong>Findings:</strong> Five interrelated themes were identified: conditional family belonging and cultural regulation, concealment as relational and emotional labor, digital spaces as sites of identity recognition and rehearsal, online social support as chosen kinship, and visibility as an ongoing negotiation. Participants’ narratives clustered into five configurations: contained visibility, selective bridging, fractured belonging, integrated but vigilant identity, and reclaimed privacy. Family belonging was rarely described as wholly accepting or rejecting; instead, it was shaped by changing combinations of affection, dependence, silence, cultural obligation, and selective recognition. Online environments enabled identity exploration, emotional validation, practical assistance, and chosen-family relationships, but also introduced risks involving surveillance, involuntary disclosure, misinformation, harassment, and intersectional exclusion.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> LGBTQ+ young adults negotiated belonging through context-dependent and strategically managed forms of visibility rather than through a linear progression from concealment to disclosure. Family and digital environments were mutually influential, and well-being depended largely on participants’ control over identity information, material safety, culturally responsive support, and access to affirming relationships.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> https://www.journals.kmanpub.com/index.php/jprfc/article/download/6264/11728