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Parenting: Online Communities Are Surrogate Families for Teens

Posted by • August 27, 2010 • Printer-friendly

A new study of 4,299 teenagers from Spain, Japan, and the United Kingdom, found that teens feel more connected to online communities than their offline peer groups and neighbors.

The study was conducted by two researchers from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) and the University of Turku in Finland, and was published by the Journal of Youth Studies, a leading international periodical covering youth research topics.

The study’s results confirm that online games, social networking sites, and other online communities are vital for teens and help to shape their identities as well as their principles. For this reason, online communities may possibly be as powerful and influential (if not more) than a teen’s offline family.

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