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Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study

BACKGROUND: Digital transformation has influenced all areas of adolescents’ lives, including the ways adolescents maintain friendships. Interpersonal communication is one of the most common activities while online. Online communication may provide adolescents with opportunities to expand their socia...

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Autores principales: Lyyra, Nelli, Junttila, Niina, Gustafsson, Jasmine, Lahti, Henri, Paakkari, Leena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9583151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36276330
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.976404
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author Lyyra, Nelli
Junttila, Niina
Gustafsson, Jasmine
Lahti, Henri
Paakkari, Leena
author_facet Lyyra, Nelli
Junttila, Niina
Gustafsson, Jasmine
Lahti, Henri
Paakkari, Leena
author_sort Lyyra, Nelli
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Digital transformation has influenced all areas of adolescents’ lives, including the ways adolescents maintain friendships. Interpersonal communication is one of the most common activities while online. Online communication may provide adolescents with opportunities to expand their social contacts, but these encounters can be risky, especially when the communication is with unknown people on the internet. This study examined the associations between different forms of online communication behavior and well-being. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from Finnish adolescents as part of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in 2018. The participants were 3,140 Finnish adolescents aged 11–15 years. Descriptive analyses were used to examine the frequency of different forms of online communication behaviors. The associations between online communications and individual factors were analyzed using the X(2) test and 95% confidence intervals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the extent to which adolescents’ online communication behavior explained the variance in adolescents’ well-being indicators. RESULTS: Overall, 60% of the adolescents reported communicating intensively with close friends, with higher rates of intensive communication reported by girls, higher age groups, and the high health literacy group. 22% of adolescents reported intensive communication with friends they got to know through the internet (online friends), while intensive online communication with unknown people was reported by 13% of adolescents. Overall, around one-fourth of adolescents preferred sharing personal matters online rather than in face-to-face encounters, and 10% of adolescents reported using the internet daily to get to know new people, and to look for like-minded company. The SEM analysis showed that keeping online contact with offline friends was linked to a positive outcome in all the measured well-being indicators; however, intensive communication with people contacted only online (online friends and unknown people) was negatively associated with well-being indicators (lower self-rated health, lower life satisfaction, higher loneliness, and problematic social media use). CONCLUSION: Both positive and negative associations were observed between online communication and well-being, depending on the target and content of the communication. The results indicate that online communication has benefits for adolescents who have more offline social life. Overall, one should ensure that the impact of interventions is proportionately greater for adolescents at the bottom end of the health gradient.
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spelling pubmed-95831512022-10-21 Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study Lyyra, Nelli Junttila, Niina Gustafsson, Jasmine Lahti, Henri Paakkari, Leena Front Psychiatry Psychiatry BACKGROUND: Digital transformation has influenced all areas of adolescents’ lives, including the ways adolescents maintain friendships. Interpersonal communication is one of the most common activities while online. Online communication may provide adolescents with opportunities to expand their social contacts, but these encounters can be risky, especially when the communication is with unknown people on the internet. This study examined the associations between different forms of online communication behavior and well-being. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from Finnish adolescents as part of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in 2018. The participants were 3,140 Finnish adolescents aged 11–15 years. Descriptive analyses were used to examine the frequency of different forms of online communication behaviors. The associations between online communications and individual factors were analyzed using the X(2) test and 95% confidence intervals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the extent to which adolescents’ online communication behavior explained the variance in adolescents’ well-being indicators. RESULTS: Overall, 60% of the adolescents reported communicating intensively with close friends, with higher rates of intensive communication reported by girls, higher age groups, and the high health literacy group. 22% of adolescents reported intensive communication with friends they got to know through the internet (online friends), while intensive online communication with unknown people was reported by 13% of adolescents. Overall, around one-fourth of adolescents preferred sharing personal matters online rather than in face-to-face encounters, and 10% of adolescents reported using the internet daily to get to know new people, and to look for like-minded company. The SEM analysis showed that keeping online contact with offline friends was linked to a positive outcome in all the measured well-being indicators; however, intensive communication with people contacted only online (online friends and unknown people) was negatively associated with well-being indicators (lower self-rated health, lower life satisfaction, higher loneliness, and problematic social media use). CONCLUSION: Both positive and negative associations were observed between online communication and well-being, depending on the target and content of the communication. The results indicate that online communication has benefits for adolescents who have more offline social life. Overall, one should ensure that the impact of interventions is proportionately greater for adolescents at the bottom end of the health gradient. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9583151/ /pubmed/36276330 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.976404 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lyyra, Junttila, Gustafsson, Lahti and Paakkari. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Lyyra, Nelli
Junttila, Niina
Gustafsson, Jasmine
Lahti, Henri
Paakkari, Leena
Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title_full Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title_fullStr Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title_full_unstemmed Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title_short Adolescents’ online communication and well-being: Findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study
title_sort adolescents’ online communication and well-being: findings from the 2018 health behavior in school-aged children (hbsc) study
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9583151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36276330
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.976404
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