Adolescents’ Interpersonal Relationships with Friends, Parents, and Teachers When Using Facebook for Interaction

doi:10.4236/ce.2013.45049

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Creative Education

2013. Vol.4, No.5, 335-339

Published Online May 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.45049

Adolescents’ Interpersonal Relationships with Friends, Parents,

and Teachers When Using Facebook for Interaction

Shih-Hsiung Liu1*, Mei-Chun Yin2, Tsung-Hsien Huang3

1Center for Teacher Education, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan

2Department of Education, National University of T a inan, Tainan, Taiwan

3Tainan Municipal Jiali Junior High School, Tainan, Taiwan

Email: *[email protected]

Received March 18th, 2013; revised April 20th, 20 13; accepted May 4th, 2013

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the adolescents’ interpersonal relationships with friends, parents,

and teachers when using Facebook for interaction. A total of 740 junior high school students were invited

to fill in a questionnaire and 673 questionnaires were available. Data were analyzed using one-way analy-

sis of variance and paired-samples t-test. The analytic result confirms that adolescents with high fre-

quency use of Facebook for interactions can expand their interpersonal relationships with friends than

those who with low frequency use, regardless of real-life or virtual relationships. However, their real-life

interpersonal relationships with parents may weaken if overly use Internet tools for interactions. Another

finding, eliminating the factor of the time on Facebook use, reveals that the adolescents’ real-life inter-

personal relationships are stronger than virtual interpersonal relationships, regardless of with friends,

parents, and teachers. Combining the above two findings, it is worth noting that the real-life interaction

with parents may reduce if overly use Internet tools for interactions. This study contributes to the litera-

ture by investigating the adolescents’ relationships with friends, parents and teachers and indicates the

potential program when adolescents using Facebook use for interaction. This study, thus, further recom-

mends that parents should be concerned their children about Facebook use.

Keywords: Adolescents; Interpersonal Relationships; Facebook

Introduction

Internet access has changed people’s lives, especially for

communication with each other. Some studies have explored

the effects of Internet technology use on social network (e.g.

Bouillion Diaz, Thompson, & DeGennaro, 2010). According to

Lenhart, Purcell, Smith and Zickuhr (2010), more than 75%

American adolescents have at least one social webpage (e.g.

Blog, Facebook) to share information and make contact with

others. The Internet communication, taking Facebook for ex-

ample, provides adolescents with opportunities to maintain the

existing interpersonal relationships as well as to develop new

friendships, according to a report by Mesch and Talmud (2006).

For most adolescents, Internet communications seem to be a

regular as well as important work in lives.

In Taiwan, Facebook use has also increasingly become an

interesting work for adolescents. Based on a record from Face-

book.com, supposedly, more than a half of Taiwanese adoles-

cents ranging in age from 13 to 15 years, as a junior high school

student, had experienced Facebook use. Facebook is different

from traditional Internet communication tools. Zuckerburg, the

founder of Facebook, stresses that Facebook is not only a dat-

ing tool but also a function in which users can expand their

friendships to online. Thus, people who use Facebook can eas-

ily build online relationships. Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter

and Espinoza (2008) indicated that adolescents increasingly

build their social relationships with known friends through

communication on the Facebook, along with routine contact in

daily lives. Suwannatthachote and Tantrarungroj (2012) also

indicated that students communicate with friends for both aca-

demic and social discussions on Facebook. Since Facebook is a

popular social tool, more and more people apply and use it.

Once adolescents know their parents or teachers use Facebook,

not everyone will invite or add their parents and teachers as

Facebook friends. Even though people recognizes that adoles-

cents interacting with parents and teachers in real life should be

much more than on Internet, Facebook, as mentioned, provid-

ing more opportunities to make contact with known people,

make virtual interactions become frequent due to some reasons,

such as lack of face-to-face time, space limitation, or being shy

to say something in front of others.

Interpersonal relationships are a network in which people

share themselves and trust the value of mutual interaction. The

positive interpersonal relationships provide people with oppor-

tunities to support others and receive others’ supports on social

works and individual emotion, and further to form a cordial

atmosphere of intimacy and mutual caring (Snell & Janney,

2000). In terms of adolescents, they desire to be recognized as

adults, autonomous members of society, and to obtain the rights

and privileges, especially from their friends, parents, and teach-

ers. However, adolescents are sometimes too shy to express

themselves in front of others because grownups have now be-

S. H. LIU ET AL.

come the operating standard for acting more maturely. Mc-

Kenna, Green and Gleason (2002) express that less interactive

presence can reduce possible uncomfortable feelings during

face-to-face interaction. People will open their mind when con-

necting with others on the Internet (Suler, 2004). Comparing to

real life, people are more willing to make a self-disclosure on

the Internet than in the real-life situation (McKenna et al.,

2002). Thus, Facebook use can facilitate adolescents to volun-

tarily express their thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and attitude

towards life and to seek for identification from others, and fur-

ther to tie with their friends through Internet communication.

Reasonably, Facebook use has positive effects on adolescents’

interpersonal relationships. Due to different types of interac-

tions in real-life and virtual situation, real-life and virtual inter-

personal relationships may be developed separately.

Furthermore, the adolescents’ interactions with friends, par-

ents, and teachers may differ, resulting in different interper-

sonal relationships with different objects. According to a Tai-

wanese study by Chou and Peng (2007), the majority of Tai-

wanese adolescents did not tell their parents about their online

dating; these adolescents, however, trusted the built online

friendships. boyd and Hargittai (2010) reported that the major-

ity of young adult users of Facebook are engaged with manag-

ing their privacy settings. Some students would be aghast if

they knew the kinds of information that their instructors could

collect about them on Facebook. Moreover, more time the ado-

lescents spend on Internet interaction, higher trustfulness they

hold for net-friends, which means more dangerous they would

emerge in situation (McCarty, Prawitz, Derscheid, & Mont-

gomery, 2011). The above literature refers to adolescents’

various interactions with different objects. The frequency of

using Facebook for interactions seems to also impact adoles-

cents’ interpersonal relationships with friends, parents, and

teachers.

In sum, whether Taiwanese adolescents use overly Facebook

may relate to their real-life/virtual relationships with different

interactive objects. Based on the above discussions, the first

research question is addressed as “What are the differences in

adolescents’ real-life/virtual interpersonal relationships with

friends, parents, and teachers between a variety of frequencies

of using Facebook for interactions?”

Moreover, some people do not agree with the benefits of

Facebook on interpersonal relationships and believe that health

interpersonal relationships should be built and maintained on

people’s real life. Internet social contacts may reduce face-to-

face interaction with others and further neglect to foster social

interpersonal skills. Louv (2005) argued that overly online in-

teraction increases lack of experiences in social interaction with

others. Whitty (2008) also indicated that online interaction

tends to use paralinguistic and emotional symbols, resulting in

lack of interactive presence, and even, additional aggressive

language. Martusewicz (2010) worried that this so-called social

networking, resulting from Facebook use, as a students’ capac-

ity may not be able to deal, intelligently, face-to-face with par-

ents, and even other teachers.

Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukopadhyay and

Scherlis (1998) initially argued that online interaction weaken

social relationships with others. However, they investigated the

same samples after three years and indicated that the previous

negative effects have disappeared. The latter study concluded

that online interaction has positive effects on social participa-

tion. Accompanying with the positive effects, adolescents’

interpersonal relationships increasingly expand. Desjarlais and

Willoughby (2010) conducted a longitudinal study about ado-

lescents’ friendships in using Internet to make friends and indi-

cated that online interaction with their known friends benefits

their real-life interpersonal relationships. As for contacts with

strangers, a study by Gross (2004) indicated that the built rela-

tionships with strangers were weak and helpless for interper-

sonal relationships. McKenna, Green and Gleason (2002) ex-

plored whether the real-life interpersonal relationships were

weaken while people favor online interaction with others and

reported that 95% of the participants who usually make contact

with others through Internet did not reduce social interaction

with family and friends in daily lives. The study also revealed

that 88% of the participants who overly use Internet communi-

cation did not change the way to interact with their family and

friends. The above perspectives seem to reveal that adolescents’

real-life and virtual relationships with others tend to be consis-

tent when using Facebook for interactions.

These previous studies did not sufficiently identify that In-

ternet communication by Facebook use benefits adolescents’

interpersonal relationships, especially with parents and teachers.

Online interaction may weaken social relationships with others

in the life, In terms of an adolescent ranging in age from 13 to

15 years, parents and teachers are still important people in their

life. An adolescent with health social relationships with parents

as well as teachers are still necessary. However, few studies

involved the comparison between real-life relationships and

virtual relationships in parents and teachers whom adolescents

use Facebook to interact with. The second research question

is addressed as “What are the differences in Taiwanese adoles-

cents’ interpersonal relationships with friends, parents, and

teachers between real-life and virtual relationships when using

Facebook for interaction?”

Methods

A survey method was conducted to determine the differences

of adolescents’ real-life/virtual interpersonal relationships with

friends, parents, and teachers when using Facebook for interac-

tion. Before the survey, four professors as well as four junior

high school teachers were invited to examine the initiate ques-

tionnaire and a group of 100 junior high school students were

recruited to fill in the revised questionnaire. In final, 740 junior

high school students who have experiences of using Facebook

and whose Facebook friends include their parents and teachers,

were invited to fill in the validated questionnaire. Through ex-

amined carefully, 674 questionnaires were available.

Two assessments were applied in this questionnaire. The

Real-life Interpersonal Relationship (RIR) assessed adoles-

cents’ real-life interpersonal relationships with friends, parents,

and teachers. The Virtual Interpersonal Relationship (VIR)

assessed adolescents’ virtual interpersonal relationships with

friends, parents, and teachers. The items of interpersonal rela-

tionships included self-discourse, sharing information, receiv-

ing help, and emotional support for others. The RIR and VIR

have 12 items respectively. Examples of the items in the RIR

were “I am willing to make a self-discourse with my friends in

life”, “I am willing to share information with my parents”, and

“I am willing to express my feeling with my teachers”. Exam-

ples for VIR items were “I am willing to make a self-discourse

with my online friends on Facebook”, “I am willing to share

information with my parents through Facebook”, and “I am

336

S. H. LIU ET AL.

willing to express my feeling with my teachers through Face-

book”.

Each item was assessed using a five-point scale with 5 =

“very strongly agree” and 1 = “very strongly disagree”.

Through reliability analyzed, the reliability coefficient of RIR

was .792 for “with friends”, .882 for “with parents”, .811 for

“with teachers”, and .915 for total RIR assessment. Addition-

ally, the reliability coefficient of VIR was .891 for “with

friends”, .923 for “with parents”, .930 for “with teachers”,

and .907 for total VIR assessment.

Moreover, most Taiwanese adolescents need to face the en-

trance exams, may spend less time to interact with others by

Facebook. Generally, they only spend a half hour lurking inter-

net and posting/responding one or two piece of information in a

day. This phenomenon results in that adolescents may not be

able to assess what a frequency of using Facebook for interac-

tions is. This study addressed a question, how many days per a

week do you use Facebook for interacting with others, instead

of frequency of Facebook interaction. In terms of life situation

in Taiwan, it is reasonably supposed that more days Taiwanese

adolescents use Facebook for, the higher frequency they inter-

act with others online.

Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance

(ANOVA) and paired-samples t-test. First, the ANOVA was

applied to determine the differences in various interpersonal

relationships with friends, parents, and teachers between a vari-

ety of frequencies of using Facebook for interactions. Second,

paired-samples t-test was employed to explore the differences

in real-life/virtual relationships with friends, parents, and teach-

ers, respectively.

Findings

To determine the differences in adolescents’ various rela-

tionships with friends, parents, and teachers between a variety

of frequencies of using Facebook for interactions, one-way

ANOVA technique was employed. Table 1 shows the means

and F value.

The analytic results reveal significant differences in “real-life

interpersonal relationships with friends”, “real-life interpersonal

relationships with parents”, and “virtual interpersonal relation-

ships with friends” between a variety of frequencies of Face-

book interactions. Regardless of real-life or real-life interper-

sonal relationships, the adolescents with high frequency use of

Facebook for interactions have strong relationships with their

friends, while have weak relationships with their parents. These

findings indicate that Facebook interactions can facilitate ado-

lescents’ real-life relationships with their friends; however,

overly Facebook use may weaken the relationships with their

parents in the life. The adolescents’ virtual relationships with

Table 1.

One-way anova on t he means of various interpersonal relationships with friends, parents, and teachers.

Dependent var iables Frequenc ies Number Submeans M F p Scheffe

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 3.83

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 3.91

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 3.90

real-life interpersonal relationships

with friends

every da y (D) 187 4.03

3.91 2.855 .035 D > A

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 3.66

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 3.43

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 3.47

real-life interpersonal relationships

with parents

every da y (D) 187 3.30

3.49 4.658 .003 A > D

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 3.35

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 3.27

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 3.18

real-life interpersonal relationships

with teachers

every da y (D) 187 3.17

3.23 2.203 .087

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 3.44

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 3.86

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 3.84

virtual interpersonal relationships

with friends

every da y (D) 187 4.05

3.76 20.467 .000 D > A

C > A

B > A

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 2.31

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 2.43

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 2.37

virtual interpersonal relationships

with parents

every da y (D) 187 2.33

2.35 0.406 .749

1 - 2 days/week (A) 253 2.51

3 - 4 days/we ek (B) 149 2.71

5 - 6 days/we ek (C) 85 2.66

virtual interpersonal relationships

with teachers

every da y (D) 187 2.73

2.64 2.132 .095

S. H. LIU ET AL.

parents are also weakest among all types of interpersonal rela-

tionships (M = 2.35).

Furthermore, Table 2 shows the analytic results of paired-

samples t-test. It reveal s significant differences in both real-life

and virtual interpersonal relation ships, regardless of with frie nds,

parents, and teachers. Specifically, the adolescents’ real-life

interpersonal relationships are stronger than virtual interper-

sonal relationships (t > 0, p < .05). That is, even though Tai-

wanese adolescents use Facebook to make contact with their

friends, parents, and teachers, they still maintain strong rela-

tionships with others in the life.

Conclusion and Discussion

Based on the questionnaire analysis, the adolescents with

high frequency use of Facebook for interactions build stronger

both real-life and virtual interpersonal relationships with friends

than those who are low frequency of Facebook use. The study

result, as a perspective from Subrahmanyam et al. (2008), con-

firms that Facebook use can expand adolescents’ interpersonal

relationships with friends regardless of real-life or virtual rela-

tionships. However, overly use Internet may neglect the inter-

actions with parents in the life, and even weaken the real-life

relationships with their parents. The finding, as a worry from

Martusewicz (2010), is worthy of noting and may imply a bar-

rier in maintaining adolescents’ real-life relationships with their

families, even for development of interpersonal skills. Even

though McKenna et al, (2002) indicated that most of the Face-

book users did not reduce interaction with family in the life, but

overly Facebook use may affect adolescents’ real-life relation-

ships with their parents. This study clarifies that Facebook use

can strengthen adolescents’ pre-existing social relationships

with friends as well as facilitate their virtual relationships;

however, adolescents’ virtual relationships with parents are

weak. Even, overly Facebook use will weaken interpersonal

relationships with parents in the life.

In terms of Taiwanese adolescents, they usually establish

contact with their friends through computers at home. When

adolescents spend much time on the Facebook building online

friendships, their real-life interactions with parents may reduce.

These are the reasons why Taiwanese adolescents’ interper-

sonal relationships with friends are strong and their real-life re-

lationships with parents are weak when overly using Facebook.

Another finding in this study, eliminating the factor of the

time on Facebook use, reveals that the adolescents’ real-life

interpersonal relationships, regardless of with friends, parents,

and teachers, are stronger than virtual interpersonal relation-

ships. As mentioned, online interaction with known people

benefits people’s social interpersonal relationships. McKenna,

et al. (2002) also reported that Facebook users who usually

establish contact with others through Internet do not reduce

social interaction with family and friends on daily lives. This

study reveals that real-life relationships with friends, parents

and teachers are stronger than virtual relationships. That is, it

can be identified that Taiwanese adolescents’ interpersonal

interactions with friends, parents and teachers were still main-

tained, and not to be reduced due to using Facebook for interac-

tions. However, this study further indicates that, differing from

the perspective from McKenna, et al., adolescents who overly

use Facebook for interaction would weaken real-life interper-

sonal relationships with their parents.

Combining the above two study findings, Facebook use can

Table 2.

Summary for paired-samples t-test result for real-life/virtual relation-

ships with friends, parents, and teachers.

Dependent

variables Interpersonal

relationships N M SD t p

real-life 3.91 0.70

with

friends virtual 674 3.75 0.88 4.916 .000

real-life 3.49 1.01

with

parents virtual 674 2.35 1.06

23.717 .000

real-life 3.26 0.82

with

teachers virtual 674 2.63 0.98

17.290 .000

benefit Taiwanese adolescents’ social relationships. The results

of the study do not worry educators and parents yet. However,

it is worth noting that the interaction with parents may reduce if

overly use Internet tools for interactions. Based on Facebook

use weakens adolescents’ relationships with parents, this study

echoes the study by Chou and Peng (2007) who indicated that

the majority of Taiwanese adolescents did not tell their parents

about their online dating. This study contributes to the literature

by investigating the adolescents’ relationships with friends,

parents and teachers and indicates the potential program when

adolescents using Facebook use for interaction. This study, thus,

further recommends that parents should be concerned their

children about Facebook use.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Science Coun-

cil, Taiwan for financially supporting this research under Con-

tract No. NSC 101-2410-H-018-030.

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