Internet use and developmental tasks: Adolescents’ point of view
Introduction
Adolescence is a period of many biological, psychological and social changes. Adolescents have to learn to adjust to their changing bodies and emerging needs as well as their new skills, roles and responsibilities (Christie & Viner, 2005). They face developmental tasks mainly related to pubertal changes, identity construction and to the redefinition of relationships with adults and peers (Adams & Berzonsky, 2008). For modern adolescents, “online” environments are a significant space of experience in their growth process. Internet usage has considerably increased in adolescence over the past decade (Purcell, 2012). An estimated 95% of American teens ages 12–17 years and 89% of Italian teens between 15 and 19 years surf the Internet (Istat, 2013, Madden et al., 2013). The popularity of Internet in adolescence triggered a wide spectrum of research on the reasons for Internet use among adolescents. Boys and girls spend most of their online time in private communication (e.g., email, instant messaging) with persons they know in their offline lives (Gross, 2004, Tsitsika et al., 2014), seeking information and entertainment, and sometimes to avoid boredom (Lin & Yu, 2008). Adolescent girls spend more time on social networking sites (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010) and use them to reinforce pre-existing friendships, whereas adolescent boys use them to flirt and make new friends (Lenhart & Madden, 2007) and to compensate for social anxiety and learning (Barker, 2009, Desjarlais and Willoughby, 2010).
Internet-related functions have become increasingly integrated into people’s daily lives, and, with the rapid proliferation of users, evidence has begun to emerge suggesting that Internet use may fulfill different developmental needs. Teens use new forms of technology to develop close and meaningful relationships (McKenna et al., 2002, Tzavela et al., 2015, Valkenburg and Peter, 2009b), explore their identity (Israelashvili and Bukobza, 2012, Subrahmanyam et al., 2006), sexuality (Suzuky & Calzo, 2004) and intimacy (Smahel & Subrahmanyam, 2007), and find information about developmentally sensitive issues (Valkenburg & Peter, 2009a). They can find academic support and learn (Chen & Fu, 2009), strengthen their online communication skills and knowledge (Koutamanis et al., 2013, Valkenburg and Peter, 2011), gain positive feelings of mastery and competence (Schmitt, Dayanim, & Matthias, 2008), learn from their peers about communication norms and cultures (Lusk, 2010), increase the feeling of connection (Utz, 2015), and the sense of community (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015).
Although research has identified multiple ways in which adolescents use the Internet, these studies have some limitations. First, most studies focused on motives for Internet use by adolescents (Barker, 2009, Desjarlais and Willoughby, 2010, Lenhart and Madden, 2007), but only a few of them embed these motives in a developmental theoretical prospective. Moreover, it is not clear whether these findings are applicable to Italian adolescents. Second, researches have mainly stressed the role of social network sites (SNS) in two specific developmental tasks: building and maintaining relationships with peers and partners and identity construction (García-Martín and García-Sánchez, 2015, Valkenburg and Peter, 2011). However, several developmental tasks typical of adolescence are still little explored, such as the redefinition of parental relationships, the processes of identification and differentiation in order to achieve psychosocial autonomy (Steinberg, 2008). Furthermore, developmental tasks may be accomplished not only through SNS use, but also through other activities on the Internet (playing games, searching for information in order to cultivate own interests, etc.). Third, there is little theoretically driven research on adolescents’ perspectives about the role of Internet in their lives. Tzavela et al. (2015), based on an adolescent-centered perspective, found that adolescents consistently connected specific online applications to adolescent-typical needs. However, their participants were adolescents reporting signs of Internet addictive behaviors and findings might be different in a normative sample. Fourth, to our knowledge, there is a lack of research that explores adolescents’ opinion on how the Internet may be used to face developmental tasks in an Italian context. The current study addresses all these gaps. Our aim is to explore adolescents’ opinions about how Internet use may support their achievement of goals identified as important in a developmental perspective. We use qualitative data obtained by focus-group interviews in an Italian context to elucidate the developmental goal-related functions of adolescents’ Internet use. This research takes into account gender and age differences in adolescent reasons for Internet use and online activities.
Section snippets
Internet use and developmental tasks
The concept of developmental tasks, introduced by Havighurst (1972), assumes that human development in modern societies is characterized by an increasingly difficult series of tasks that individuals must complete throughout their lives. They represent internalized links between individual needs and societal claims that gain high subjective relevance, guide motivation and behavior, and show context-specific differences between cultures and historical periods (Adams & Berzonsky, 2008). The major
Participants
Participants were 127 adolescents (65 boys and 62 girls), ranging between 12 and 20 years old (M = 14.67, SD = 1.97), attending middle schools (74 students of 8th grade, 58% of participants) and high schools (53 students of 10th and 12th grade, respectively 20% and 22% of participants) in the province of Turin (Northwest of Italy). In line with the aims of the study, rational sampling was used. The sample was non-random and non-representative, but balanced according to several properties considered
Description of the main characteristics of participants’ Internet use
A pre-group questionnaire was used to assess the main characteristics of participants’ Internet use. Of the 127 students who participated in the study, 95% reported having a personal computer at home and 66% surfed the Internet every day, 15% twice or three times a week, 5% once a week and 14% from less than once a month to once a month. High school students surfed the Internet more often than middle school students, χ2 (4, N = 119) = 15.36, p < .01. There were no significant gender differences in
Discussion and conclusion
The aim of this research was to explore adolescents’ opinions about how the Internet can be used to achieve developmental tasks. Results suggest that half of the goal-related statements focused on identity formation. All focus groups also mentioned autonomy and formation of meaningful relationships with peers. We noted few significant differences based on adolescent gender or school level. Boys did use the Internet for fun more than girls, and high school students mentioned generation-related
References (86)
- et al.
Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review
Children and Youth Services Review
(2014) - et al.
Determinants and mechanisms in ego identity development: A review and synthesis
Developmental Review
(2001) - et al.
Family functioning and information and communication technologies: How do they relate? A literature review
Computers in Human Behavior
(2015) Friendship 2.0: Adolescents experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online
Journal of Adolescence
(2012)- et al.
A longitudinal study of the relation between adolescent boys and girls’ computer use with friends and friendship quality: Support for the social compensation or the rich-get-richer hypothesis?
Computers in Human Behavior
(2010) - et al.
Internet social network communities: Risk taking, trust, and privacy concerns
Computers in Human Behaviour
(2009) - et al.
The impact of daily stress on adolescents’ depressed mood: The role of social support seeking through Facebook
Computers in Human Behavior
(2015) - et al.
Online discourse in a teen chatroom: New codes and new modes of coherence in a visual medium
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
(2003) Adolescent Internet use: What we expect, what teens report
Journal of Developmental Psychology
(2004)- et al.
Influences of motives to play and time spent gaming on the negative consequences of adolescent online computer gaming
Computers in Human Behavior
(2012)
Adolescents’ over-use of the cyber world-Internet addiction or identity exploration?
Journal of Adolescence
Self-concept, self-esteem, gender, race and information technology use
Computers in Human Behavior
Practice makes perfect: The longitudinal effect of adolescents’ instant messaging on their ability to initiate offline friendships
Computers in Human Behavior
Knowing when not to use the Internet: Shyness and adolescents’ on-line and off-line interactions with friends
Computers in Human Behavior
Internet addiction among Chinese adolescents: The effect of parental behavior and self-control
Computers in Human Behavior
Loneliness and social uses of the Internet
Computers in Human Behavior
Posting, commenting, and tagging: Effects of sharing news stories on Facebook
Computers in Human Behavior
The association of parenting style and child age with parental limit setting and adolescent MySpace behavior
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Media and technology use predicts ill-being among children, preteens and teenagers independent of the negative health impacts of exercise and eating habits
Computers in Human Behavior
Constructing sexuality and identity in an online teen chatroom
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Online social networking in adolescence: Patterns of use in six European countries and links with psychosocial functioning
Journal of Adolescent Health
Processes discriminating adaptive and maladaptive Internet use among European adolescents highly engaged online
Journal of Adolescence
The function of self-disclosure on social network sites: Not only intimate, but also positive and entertaining self-disclosures increase the feeling of connection
Computers in Human Behavior
Online communication among adolescents: An integrated model of its attraction, opportunities, and risks
Journal of Adolescent Health
The mediator role of self-disclosure and moderator roles of gender and social anxiety in the relationship between Chinese adolescents’ online communication and their real-world social relationships
Computers in Human Behavior
Escaping or connecting? Characteristics of youth who form close online relationships
Journal of Adolescence
The benefits and dangers of flow experience in high school students’ Internet usage: The role of parental support
Computers in Human Behavior
Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships
Computers in Human Behaviors
Amicizia on-line: Disimpegno o stimolazione?
Psicologia clinica dello sviluppo
Older adolescents’ motivations for social network site use: The influence of gender, group identity, and collective self-esteem
CyberPsychology & Behavior
Adolescents online: The importance of Internet activity choices to salient relationships
Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Identity construction on the Internet
Internet use and academic achievement: Gender differences in early adolescence
Adolescence
Children’s exposure to negative Internet contact: Effects of family context
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
ABC of adolescence: Adolescence development
British Medical Journal
The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Teens on the Internet: Interpersonal connection, identity, and information
Information Technology at Home
Developmental tasks and education
Developmental tasks and adolescents’ relationships with their peers and their family
Cited by (0)
- 1
Permanent address: Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Via Verdi 10, 10126 Torino, Italy. Tel. +39 011 6702986; fax: +39 011 6702790.