Abstract

People begin to recognize sexual orientation or gender identity in adolescence, and adolescents frequently use an accessible and anonymous anonymity knowledge retrieval community to explore sensitive health information about gender. This study attempted to observe their information search behavior based on questions and answers about adolescents’ gender identity in the knowledge retrieval community. First, we wanted to examine their information needs and to investigate what factors they preferred to answer by comparing the characteristics of the answers adopted with the non-adopted answers among the answers provided in the questions they shared. To this end, Naver, Korea’s representative knowledge search community. In Knowledge-iN, a total of 358 sets of data were analyzed, consisting of responses adopted over three years from January 2016 to December 2018. As a result, adolescents with concerns about gender identity demanded information about definition or confusion about gender identity. In the responses adopted by the users, the factors that gave empathy and positive feelings were higher than those that were not adopted, whereas the negative responses were higher in the unaccepted answers. This study is meaningful in that it analyzes the information needs and information search behaviors of adolescents with no established gender identity, expands the discussion in the information search field, and confirms cognitive and emotional models for information evaluation of health information users. Also, based on the research results, we propose practical implications for effective information services on gender identity that social media should provide to young people.