Face-to-face Contacts,Facebook Connections and Academic Support: Adolescents’ Networks between and across Gender and Culture in Finland

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109 seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups: major-culture (n = 50; 46%), bi-culture (n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture (n = 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace face-to-face, Facebook and academic support networks within each classroom. Results of social network analysis revealed that bi-culture students were culturally the most open to network with their classmates in face-to-face contacts, Facebook connections and peer academic support. Female students were more inclined to use Facebook to connect with other female classmates, whereas males were equally likely to connect with either gender via Facebook. No gender similarities were found in academic support network although female students were more apt to engage in academic support than their male counterparts.