Daily patterns of communication and contact between Italian early adolescents and their friends.
The goal of the present study was to explore patterns of communication between adolescents and their friends across both "online" and "in-person" contexts. The participants were adolescents (n = 727) aged 11-16 years attending middle schools in urban and rural areas of Italy. Participants completed daily logs of their in-person and online contacts with friends for 20 consecutive school days. Girls reported more total contacts with their friends than did boys as well as friendships that were closer and more intimate. However, boys indicated more contact than girls via electronic communication and online. Contacts with peers in general were less frequent among the older participants, perhaps because of increasing academic demands. Participants who complemented in-person contact with friends with electronic contact were less lonely than their counterparts who were less versatile in accessing different modalities of making contact with friends.
Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy. roberto.baiocco@uniroma1.it
Roberto
R
Baiocco
Fiorenzo
F
Laghi
Barry H
BH
Schneider
Maria
M
Dalessio
Yair
Y
Amichai-Hamburger
Robert J
RJ
Coplan
Diana
D
Koszycki
Martine
M
Flament
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007558:Italy; D008132:Loneliness; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires