title: Gender differences in online and offline self-disclosure in pre-adolescence and adolescence.
abstract: Although there is developmental research on the prevalence of offline self-disclosure in pre-adolescence and adolescence, it is still unknown (a) how boys' and girls'online self-disclosure develops in this period and (b) how online and offline self-disclosure interact with each other. We formulated three hypotheses to explain the possible interaction between online and offline self-disclosure: the displacement, the rich-get-richer, and the rehearsal hypothesis. We surveyed 690 pre-adolescents and adolescents (10-17 years) at three time points with half-year intervals in between. We found significant gender differences in the developmental trajectories of self-disclosure. For girls, both online and offline self-disclosure increased sharply during pre- (10-11 years) and early adolescence (12-13 years), and then stabilized in middle and late adolescence. For boys, the same trajectory was found although the increase in self-disclosure started 2 years later. We found most support for the rehearsal hypothesis: Both boys and girls seemed to use online self-disclosure to rehearse offline self-disclosure skills. This particularly held for boys in early adolescence who typically have difficulty disclosing themselves offline.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication, Amsterdam School of Communication Research ASCoR, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. p.m.valkenburg@uva.nl
authors.forename: Patti M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Valkenburg
authors.forename: Sindy R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Sumter
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009426:Netherlands; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012951:Socialization