**3. This study**

This study will focus on the possibilities offered by social media for SGMY in developing a resilient SGM-identity during the period of identity concealment. It is precisely in that period social media might offer opportunities that the offline environment does not. The knowledge gained on how SGMY experience social media during this period, might provide insights on how the offline environment of SGMY could better match their needs in identity development. The methodological design will be qualitative of nature, addressing a gap in research on resilience and SGMY, which is mainly quantitative of nature [23, 37]. Resilience will be operationalized as the following: the ability "to survive and thrive in the face of adversity" [24 p.50].

The concept of resilience can offer an interesting framework in understanding SGMY-identity development, given the difficulties SGMY might face in their identity development [3]. The overarching research question that follows from this is *how does social media usage by SGMY during the period of identity concealment contribute to the development of a resilient SGM-identity?* It is hypothesized that three affordances of social media, anonymity, asynchronicity and accessibility, offer opportunities for SGMY during the period of identity concealment to increase their self-concept clarity and self-esteem, resulting in a positive SGM-identity [3, 16, 20–22, 29, 35]. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the development of a resilient SGM-identity will proceed as follows: through finding a supportive environment on social media, SGMY will be able to maintain that positive SGM-identity, while navigating their (hostile) offline environment through fostering individual-based resilience, and communitybased resilience [15, 24, 35, 37, 38, 42–44].
