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Research Article                                                                                                                      Open Access

## Online and Offline Friendship Among Italian Adolescent Girls Following a Non-Traditional School Track

Giulia Zucchetti 1* , Fabrizia Giannotta 2 & Emanuela Rabaglietti 1

1 Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Italy; 2 Center for Development Research, Orebro University, Sweden

* Corresponding Author:

guilia.zucchetti@unito.it

## Abstract

Background: There is still a question of whether online friendship predicts changes in face-to-face friendship (Reduction Hypothesis) or face-to-face friendship predicts changes in online friendship (Compensation Hypothesis) during adolescence. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare these two hypotheses to determine which comes first: online friendship or offline friendship.

Method: Eighty adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 19 years (mean, 16.07 years; standard deviation, 1.28 years) on a non-traditional school track completed self-report questionnaires. Two wave longitudinal models were tested with the use of cross-lagged analysis to compare the hypotheses.

Results: Analysis showed that negative face-to-face friendship quality predicted online friendship but that the opposite was not true.

Conclusions: The study's findings underlined the compensation role of online friendship for girls with poor or unsatisfactory offline social worlds. The implications of this information and suggestions for clinicians and professionals to use to enhance adolescent social skills and to promote appropriate use of the Internet will be discussed.

Key Words: Online friendship; Offline friendship; Adolescence

## Introduction

The Internet is becoming a new context in which to develop friendship. In recent years, a growing amount of  research  has  demonstrated  that  adolescents - especially girls - are involved in online social interactions that often turn into real friendships (13). Thus, the number of friendships born via online interaction has grown considerably.

Researchers have postulated two possible explanations  for  this  increase  in  online  friendships.  The first  relies  on  the  fact  that  the  Internet  facilitates communication  (4;5).  For  example,  the  anonymity and absence of visual contact afforded by online interactions may promote disclosure and the communication  of  personal  emotions  among  adolescents (1;6). As a result, those adolescents that cannot satisfy  their  needs  for  affection  and  closeness  with peers in face-to-face relationships may be more will- ing  to  search  for  new  friendships  on  the  Internet (7).  Other  researchers  have  claimed  that  a  lack  of good relationship with peers is not a cause of online friendship formation but rather a consequence of it. The time spent in online relationships could reduce the time spent in face-to-face interactions. In turn, this reduction of time spent in face-to-face interactions may affect friendship quality. Thus, according to  this  perspective,  a  quality  reduction  of  face-toface  friendship  will  be  the  natural  consequence  of an increase of online friendship.

In summary, it is not very clear if the lack of or the quality of face-to-face friendship predicts an increase  in  online  friendship  or  vice  versa.  The  current research aims to address this issue by comparing the previously mentioned perspectives to investigate the direction of the relationship between offline and online friendship.

Does  unsatisfactory face-to-face friendship lead to online friendship formation?

The first theoretical perspective, known as the Social  Compensation  Hypothesis, argues that, among adolescents, Internet friendship formation is the result of poor or weak face-to-face relationships (8;9). It is already well documented that adolescents need to build and maintain satisfying relationships to explore and resolve their typical developmental tasks, such  as  the  crisis  of  identity  (10;11).  Adolescents need to experiment and to compare their own identity  with  the  identities  of  others  to  gain  autonomy and  independence  when  developing  social  skills through the construction of close relationships (1214). Adolescents who are not benefiting from positive and secure friendship may search on the Internet for other ways to make friends to fulfill their social purpose (15). The characteristics of the Internet, such as anonymity and the lack of visual and auditory cues, facilitate the process of self-disclosure; this in  turn  leads  to  the  formation  of  new  online  relationships (16;17). For these adolescents, the online context  thus  becomes  a  safe  and  ideal  place  in which to explore their identities, develop their social skills, and meet new and accessible friends (3;5;18).

The  result  of  many  studies  supported  the  Social Compensation Hypothesis. For example, the study by Campbell and colleagues and the study by Walther revealed that adolescents with poor face-to-face friendship  quality  benefit  from  online  social  communication, which allows them to interact with others more easily than they may in a face-to-face context  (8;9).  Other  researchers  pointed  out  that  adolescents who suffer from loneliness and social anxiety  tend  to  turn  to  online  communication  (19;20). Valkenburg  and  Peter  have  demonstrated  that  the majority of socially  anxious  adolescents  considered the  Internet  to  be  more  useful  than  face-to-face communication  for  sharing  personal  and  intimate feelings and experiences (2). These types of adolescents in fact have some difficulty building intimate face-to-face  friendships  and  sharing  their  personal feelings with others. Therefore, they may feel more confident  disclosing  themselves  in  the  absence  of physical  interaction.  Online  interactions  can  fulfill this need  (17). In addition, some  studies  have shown  that  adolescents  -  especially  girls  -  use  the Internet for self-disclosure with unknown individuals to compensate for needs that arise from an unsatisfactory  offline  environment,  such  as  a  lack  of social closeness to others (7;21;22).

Thus, some evidence suggests that the inadequate development  of  face-to-face  interactions  may  lead to the formation of online relationships.

Does online friendship formation lead to unsatisfactory faceto-face friendship?

The  second  theoretical  perspective,  known  as  the Reduction Hypothesis, claims that online communication  decreases  adolescents'  face-to-face  friendships  because  it  reduces  the  time  that  could  be spent with existing friends (23-25). Specifically, this hypothesis assumes that the Internet motivates adolescents  to  form  online  contacts  with  strangers  rather than to maintain friendships with their face-toface  friends.  The  time  spent  with  online  strangers occurs  at  the  expense  of  time  spent  with  existing friends and impedes the further development of already  existing  friendships.  Moreover,  online  relationships with strangers, which are considered to be more  superficial  than  offline  relationships,  inevitably lead to a reduction of existing friendship quality (26).

Some  empirical  studies  support  the  idea  that online friendship reduces offline friendship. For example,  the  HomeNet  Project  found  that  Internet use was associated with a significant decrease in local social network size as a result of the time adolescents spent communicating online (23). Nie and colleagues also found that greater Internet use was related  to  less  time  spent  with  offline  friends  (25). Blais and colleagues demonstrated that using the Internet  to  communicate  with  strangers  reduced  the quality of an individual's best face-to-face friendship (27). Specifically, visiting chat rooms was related to increased  ''alienation  and  conflict''  and  decreased ''intimacy  and  companionship''  with  the  best  faceto-face friend. Despite the small number of studies in  support  of  the  Reduction  Hypothesis,  there  is some evidence that online friendship formation involves the presence of an unsatisfactory face-to-face friendship.

## Limitations of previous studies

Despite their significant contributions to the understanding of the association between online and offline  friendship,  the  previously  mentioned  studies did have some limitations.

First,  in  the  majority  of  those  studies, the reduction  in  the  amount  of  time  spent  with  face-to-face friends is the unique indicator adopted to study the consequences of online relationships on offline interactions. However, time reduction is not sufficient to account for the negative influence of Internet interactions on existing face-to-face friendships. Scholars have in fact highlighted that there are other salient  dimensions,  such  as  friendship  quality,  that need  to  be  considered  when  studying  adolescent face-to-face friendship (28). Second, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated both types of relationships to ascertain which hypothesis is the more likely, the Reduction Hypothesis or the Social Compensation  Hypothesis.  Moreover,  no  one  has investigated the possible reciprocal effects between online and offline friendships.

Another shortcoming of these studies is that the majority  of  research  has  looked  at  the  normative adolescent  population.  It  is  also  important  to  take into  account  non-normative  adolescents,  such  as those  who  have  followed  a  non-traditional  school track. The present study involved Italian youth who are  on  such  non-traditional  school  tracks.  In  the Italian  education  system,  adolescents  are  expected to continue to attend school until they are 18 years old. Usually, the majority of Italian adolescents continue  within  the  traditional  school  system,  which provides  access  to  colleges,  lyceums,  professional schools,  and  technical  schools.  Those  who  do  not wish to continue studying are obliged until the age of  18  years  to  attend  vocational  schools  that  are closely  related  to  the  learning  of  a  job  (e.g.,  hairdressing school

School  transition  is  one  of  the  most  challenging and stressful developmental turning points that adolescents must deal with, and it also involves a transformation of school-based social relationships (29). Recent studies have shown that adolescents following non-traditional school tracks, such as those who are attending vocational schools, are more involved in problem behavior as compared with adolescents following  normative  pathways  (30;31).  Specifically, students  who  follow  non-traditional  school  tracks seem  to  experience  a  sort  of  'institutional  disadvantage and poor school engagement' (32;33). This disengagement from school likely interferes with an adolescent's ability to do well both academically and socially  (34).  According  to  the  transactional  model (35;36),  poor  school  engagement  (in  terms  also  of low school achievement) and negative peer experiences  (e.g.,  peer  victimization,  negative  friendship quality)  are  mutually  influenced  over  time.  Thus, adolescents who are following these types of school tracks  may  be  more  at  risk  of  having  difficulties with their social relationships. As a result, they may be more interested in developing online friendships. Moreover,  girls  who  attend  vocational  schools  are more likely to use the Internet for social purposes as compared with boys who attend the same types of school (37). Therefore, it may be important to study the  formation  of  online  friendships  among  girls who attend vocational schools.

The majority of the studies that have considered the possibility that online friendship can reduce the quality of offline friendship were conducted during the  early  stages  of  the  Internet,  when  Internet  use was  still  limited.  Today,  Internet  use  is  rapidly  increasing, and more than half of the Italian population uses the Internet at home for social communication (38). Although Internet use has changed and modern  adolescents  use the Internet often for communication  with  their  existing  friends,  online communication  with  strangers  is  still  a  common phenomenon,  especially  for  some  type  of  adolescents  and  particularly  for  social  compensation  (7). In the light of growing Internet use, it may be important to know whether this habit can have a role in  the  friendship  features  of  adolescents  who  are more at risk for problem behaviors and who have more  difficulties  with  peer  relationships  (33),  such as those who are on a non-traditional school track.

## The present study

The purpose of this study is to compare the Reduction Hypothesis with the Social Compensation Hypothesis  and  eventually  to  investigate  whether  a model of reciprocal influence is likely for a group of girls on a non-traditional school track.

In keeping with the Reduction Hypothesis, we referred to online self-disclosure as one of the components  of  friendship  that  can  influence  the  onset of a negative face-to-face friendship quality. Online self-disclosure  was defined as one of the most important functions of close adolescent friendships in Internet  settings,  and  it  has  been  investigated  in many studies.  These  studies  concluded  that  online self-disclosure  facilitates  the  formation  of  online friendships and enhances the quality of online adolescent  relationships  (2;15;17;18;39).  Thus,  we  focused on this component of friendship when investigating  the  formation  of  online  friendship  among girls. If the Reduction Hypothesis is true, we would expect that the quality of these adolescents' face-toface  relationships  would  worsen  as  a  consequence of their disclosure online.

To  test  the  Social  Compensation  Hypothesis, which  postulates that unsatisfactory face-to-face friendship leads to online friendship formation, we focused  on  a  negative  component  of  friendship quality:  best-friend  conflicts.  Indeed,  adolescents who  are  not  satisfied  with  their  relationships  because  of  the  presence  of  continuous  conflict  may search  for  friends  in  the  online  context  who  are more  accessible  for  the  sharing  of  emotions  and feelings.  If  the  Social  Compensation  Hypothesis  is supported,  then  it  would  be  expected  that  adolescents would participate in online self-disclosure as a consequence of the negative quality of their face-toface relationships.

In  summary, we compared the four models presented in Figure 1. The first model tested the stability  of  online  self-disclosure  and  negative  face-to- a. Stability model Online Self Disclosure Time 1

Time 1

Online Self Disclosure

Time 2

face  friendship  quality  at  two  time  levels,  without cross-lagged paths. The second model tested the effect  of  online  self-disclosure  on  negative  face-toface  friendship  quality  over  time.  The  third  model investigated the effects of negative face-to-face friendship  quality  on  online  self-disclosure.  The fourth model tested the reciprocal effects of negative  face-to-face  friendship  quality  and  online  selfdisclosure over time.

Negative Face-to-Face

Friendship Quality

Time 1

c. Offline driven model

Online Self Disclosure

Time 1

Negative Face-to-Face

Friendship Quality

Time 1

d. Reciprocal model

Online Self Disclosure

Time 1

Negative Face-to-Face

Friendship Quality

Time 1

Figure 1. Alternative models for the relationship between Online Self disclosure and Face-to-Face Negative Friendship Quality

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To summarize, the research questions addressed by this study were as follows:

- 1) What  is  the  direction  of  influence  between online self-disclosure and negative face-to-face friendship quality among Italian girls following non-conventional school tracks?
- 2) Is there a reciprocal association between online self-disclosure and negative face-to-face friendship quality?

By taking into account the specific characteristics of  our  sample,  which  was  made  up  of  individuals who may use online communication as a resource to cope with a lack of face-to-face social support, we expected to find support only for the Social Compensation  Hypothesis.  We  believed  that  we  would be dealing with adolescents with high levels of negative face-to-face friendship quality who probably as a result of the presence of online friends with whom it is easy to interact, would be spending an increasing  amount  of  time  online  disclosing  personal  information to strangers. Contrary to the social compensation hypothesis and in respect to the reduction hypothesis,  we  expected  to  find  no  relationship from online friendship to offline friendship.

## Method

Sample

Participants  were  80  adolescent  girls  between  the ages of 14 and 19 years (mean, 16.07 years; standard deviation, 1.28 years) attending the first (41%) and second (59%) years of a vocational school in northern  Italy.  This  vocational  school  was  chosen  randomly from among all the vocational schools in the city  of  Turin  with  similar  conditions  in  terms  of both the socioeconomic levels of the students' parents  and  the  surrounding  ecological  environment. Parents  provided  written  consent  for  minor  students to participate in the study, and students who were more than 18 years old assented in accordance with  Italian  law  and  the  ethical  code  of  the  Italian Association  of.  All  students  of  the  selected  school joined the research. There was no attrition, because we were able to contact all of the students who were absent during the two sessions of data collection.

According  to  the  Italian  Ministry  of  Instruction, University  and  Research  (40),  120,000  of  600,000 students  chose  a  non-traditional  school  track  in 2013.  Regarding  relevant  structural  indicators,  our participants appear to be comparable with the general  population  of  Italian  students  who  are  on  the traditional  school  track  (i.e.,  the  80%  who  are  attending the lyceum) (38). The proportion of parental  divorce  was  8%.  More  than  half  of  the  adolescents'  families  were  composed  of  four  members, and 30% came from single-parent families. With respect to the level of education of the parents, 47% completed elementary school, 38% completed high school, 6% had some vocational specialization, and 9% were university graduates.

## Procedure

Students  completed  questionnaires  that  were  distributed  by  trained  research  staff  during  classroom time.  These  questionnaires  took  approximately  30 minutes for students to complete, and the students were assured of confidentiality and anonymity. Teachers were not present in the classroom during the questionnaire administration, and no incentives were offered for participation.

The  two  time  points  at  which  the  questionnaire was administered were approximately one year apart.

## Measures

## Online self-disclosure

Online self-disclosure was assessed with each questionnaire  using  Snell,  Miller,  and  Belk's  scale  (41). This scale  is  composed  of  19  items  that  reflect  an adolescent's ability to reveal his or her emotions to an online stranger friend whom he or she has never met in person. Items were rated on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always), with a high score reflecting a strong  and  frequent  ability  to  self-disclose  (e.g., 'How many times do you speak about your anxious feelings with an online stranger friend?'). Cronbach's alphas for this scale were 0.91 at Time 1 and 0.93 at Time 2.

## Negative face-to-face friendship quality

Participants  rated  three  items  taken  from  the  Network Relationship Inventory on a five-point Likert scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always) (11). More precisely, these three items reflected the level of  conflict between  friends  (e.g.,  'How  many  times  do  you  and your  friend  quarrel  with  each  other?'),  which  reflected the level of negative friendship quality. High scores  corresponded  with  a  high  level  of  negative face-to-face  friendship  quality.  Cronbach's  alphas for this scale were 0.86 at Time 1 and 0.90 at Time 2.

## Statistical analyses

To test the relationship between online selfdisclosure and negative face-to-face friendship quality,  we  used  Mplus  Version  6  software  to  run  a cross-lagged  analysis  with  a  maximum  likelihood method,  which  is  recommended  when  the  sample size  is  small  (42).  For  missing  data,  we  used  a  full information maximum likelihood approach.

We tested the four nested models that were presented in Figure 1. We compared these nested mod- els  using a  chi-squared difference test. With regard to  the  fit  indices,  we  examined  the  chi-squared comparative  fit  index  and  the  standardized  rootmean-square residual. A model is considered to fit well  when  the  model's  chi-squared  distribution  is not significant. In addition, a comparative fit index value  of  0.95  or  higher  suggests  a  good  model  fit (43). Root mean square error of approximation and standardized  root-mean-square  residual  values  of 0.08 or less are expected for an adequate model fit (43).

As a result of the differences between the range of the  online  self-disclosure  scale  and  those  of  the friendship  scale,  the  total  score  of  the  online  selfdisclosure scale was divided by a fixed number (i.e., 7) so that the two scales could be compared.

## Descriptives

Repeated  measures  analysis  of  variance  suggested that negative face-to-face friendship quality did not increase significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 ( F [1] = 1,602, n.s.) (Table 1). In addition, online selfdisclosure did not increase significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 ( F [1] = 1,268, n.s.).

Table 1. Intercorrelations among, means and standard deviation of Online Self-Disclosure and Negative Face-to-Face Friendship Quality

|                 | 1      | 2      | 3      | 4    |
|-----------------|--------|--------|--------|------|
| 1. OSD (Wave 1) | --     |        |        |      |
| 2. NFQ (Wave 1) | .44 ** | --     |        |      |
| 3. OSD (Wave 2) | 25 **  | .24 *  | --     |      |
| 4. NFQ (Wave 2) | .20 ** | .24 ** | .23 ** | --   |
| M               | 41.4   | 8.12   | 40.4   | 8.32 |
| SD              | 4.49   | 2.40   | 4.8    | 4.63 |

Note: n=80

* p < .05; ** p < .01

OSD = Online Self-Disclosure

NFQ = Negative Face-to-Face Friendship Quality

## Negative  face-to-face  friendship quality  and online self-disclosure

We tested  the  four  models  that  were  presented  in Figure  1.  As  seen  in  Table  2,  the  offline  driven model was significantly  different  from  the  stability model, whereas the online model was not. As in the online  driven  model,  online  self-disclosure  did  not predict  negative  face-to-face  friendship  quality;  we did not test the reciprocal model against online selfdisclosure and negative face-to-face friendship quality.  In  conclusion,  these  findings  suggest  that  the offline  driven  model  represented  the  relationship between online self-disclosure and negative face-toface friendship quality.

aisclosure - year later.

23°

Online Self Disclosure

Time 1

44**

21"°

Negative Face-to-Face

Friendship Quality

Time 1

41**

Online Self Disclosure

Time 2

.23°

Table 2. Model fit for competitive models

Friendship Quality

Time 2

| Model              |   x 2 |   df |   p |   CFI |   SRMR | Model comparison   |   ∆Χ 2 |   df |   p |
|--------------------|-------|------|-----|-------|--------|--------------------|--------|------|-----|
| A. Stability model | 6.039 |    2 | .04 |   .80 |    .76 |                    |        |      |     |
| B.                 | 3.735 |    1 | .05 |   .87 |   .059 | A                  |  2.304 |    1 | .06 |
| C. Offline driven  | 2.306 |    1 | .13 |   .95 |   .042 | A                  |  5.803 |    1 | .01 |

Figure 2 shows the structural part  of  the  model. In the offline driven model, the findings suggested that  both  negative  face-to-face  friendship  quality and online self-disclosure were relatively stable from Time 1 to Time 2 (β = 0.41 and β = 0.23, respectively; P <  .05).  Negative  face-to-face  friendship quality at Time 1 predicted online self-disclosure at Time  2  (β  =  0.21; P <  .05)  when  controlling  for online self-disclosure at Time 1, which suggests that high levels of negative face-to-face friendship quality  were  associated  with  high  levels  of  online  selfdisclosure 1 year later.

Figure 2.  Structural model of the effects of Negative Face-To-Face Friendship Quality on Online Self Disclosure

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## Discussion

The goals of the present study were to compare the Reduction Hypothesis and the Social Compensation Hypothesis  and  to  investigate  whether  a  model  of reciprocal  influence  was  likely  among  a  group  of girls following a non-traditional school track.

We  found  support  for  the  Social  Compensation Theory. Indeed, the offline driven model best represented  the  relationship  between  negative  face-toface  friendship  quality  and  online  self-disclosure. The fact emerged that, when adolescents experience many conflicts in their face-to-face friendships, they are more likely to increase online self-disclosure. As stated previously, the presence of an unsatisfactory face-to-face social world, which is characterized by poor close friendships in terms of best-friend conflicts, can make it difficult for some adolescents to share experiences and emotions with peers and lead them  to  search  for  new  unknown  friends  through the  Internet.  In  this  study,  we  found  that  negative face-to-face  friendship  quality  was  associated  with online self-disclosure over time. These results are in line  with  those  of  several  other  studies  that  have shown  that  adolescents  use  the  Internet  as  a  relatively  safe  place  in  which  they  can  rehearse  their self-disclosure  and  self-presentation  skills  (44;45). However, our study also demonstrated that conflict with  face-to-face  best  friends  triggers  this  online self-disclosure. The online interactions provide compensation  for  problematic  relationships  with peers by offering a context in which adolescents can self-disclose  without  feeling  forced  to  reciprocate information and in which they can remain as anonymous as they like.

We found that this result also holds true with adolescents on  a  non-traditional  school  track.  Because the  literature  has  shown  that  adolescents'  disengagement  from  school  is  often  associated  with  a major  risk  of  developing  peer  victimization  problems and peer impairments (35;36), we may hypothesize that the compensation mechanism is stronger for those who are less involved in school and who attend vocational schools as compared with normative  youths.  This  hypothesis  should  be  tested  in other studies.

One  possible  reason  that  adolescents  who  have conflictual  relationships  with  peers  prefer  online self-disclosure  may  reside  with  the  features  of  this type  of  communication.  Online  communication  is typically  characterized  by  reduced  visual  (e.g.,  appearance) and auditory (e.g., voice) cues (9). An important  consequence  of  these  reduced  cues  when communicating online is that adolescents who have conflictual relationships with peers and who probably  feel  more  isolated  and  lonely  may  become  less concerned  about  how  others  perceive  them  and thus  may  have  fewer  inhibitions  when  disclosing themselves  (9;46-48).  Especially  among  depressed and paranoid adolescents, however, this lack of visual  and  auditory  cues  could  increase  negative  false perceptions  about  the  way  others  perceive  them. These hypotheses should be considered and tested in studies that also take into account the roles of the characteristics of online communication.

The compensation mechanism that emerges from our  results  does  not  necessarily  give  a  negative connotation to online friendships. On the one hand, the Internet may offer new opportunities for socialization among adolescents who have problems with  face-to-face  relationships;  this  may  in  turn fulfill  their  needs  for  significant  relationships.  On the other hand, this mechanism may become negative  when  it  leads  to  the  creation  of  online friendships only. Youths who prefer online friendships  may  have  more  tension  in  their  best face-to-face friendships; they may spend less enjoyable time with friends and thus have increased feelings of ''alienation and conflict'' within those friendships  over  time,  as  was  shown  in  a  study  by Blais and colleagues (27).

We did  not  find  support  for  the  Reduction  Hypothesis. Indeed, adolescents' online self-disclosure was not associated with an increase in the negative aspects of adolescent friendships. However, we did not  examine  the  quantity  of  time  that  adolescents spent  on  the  Internet  but  only  the  quality  of  this time. It is possible that the creation of new friendships  on  the  Internet  -  when  this  is  not  a  consequence of negative face-to-face relationships - may directly  decrease  only  the  time  spent  with  offline friends (as shown by Kraut and colleagues and Nie and colleagues) and not the quality of those offline relationships (23;25). Thus, it would be necessary to take  into  account  different  aspects  of  online  communication,  such  as  its  quantity  and  quality,  to completely confute the Reduction Hypothesis.

Some limitations of this explorative study should be  highlighted.  The  most  important  is  its  small sample  size,  which  makes  it  difficult  to  generalize results to larger contexts. Moreover, the size of our sample and the fact that it contained only girls did not allow for the division  of the sample according to age or gender to see whether the same relationships hold for both subsamples. Many studies have demonstrated  differences  between  boys  and  girls with  regard  to  online  and  offline  friendships,  although studies that tested the Social Compensation Hypothesis did not find support for gender differ- ences  (5;7;24;44;45).  Thus,  future  research  with  a larger  sample  that  includes  both  boys  and  girls  is needed.  In  the  present  study,  we  considered  only online self-disclosure and did not look at other aspects  of  online  communication,  such  as  the  time spent  performing  such  communication.  Although online  communication  is  itself  a  multidimensional concept, we referred to online self-disclosure as the most  important  aspect  for  understanding  online friendship  formation  and  friendship  in  general,  as other authors have shown (28,49).

Despite these limitations, this study also has several strengths. It compared for the first time the Reduction  Hypothesis  and  the  Social  Compensation Hypothesis.  It  demonstrated  that  the  relationship between negative face-to-face friendship and online self-disclosure  may  be  represented  properly,  as  the Social  Compensation  Hypothesis  stated,  with  a  direct association between negative face-to-face friendship quality and online self-disclosure. Moreover,  it  extended  the  investigation  of  this  relationship  to  adolescent  girls  following  a  non-traditional school  track.  As  previously  stated,  in  recent  years, many Italian adolescents have chosen such a track. Prior  work  has  shown  that  Italian  adolescents  enrolled  on  a  non-tradition  school  track  have  some problems  with  social  development:  they  seem  to have  more  difficulty  building  positive  and  secure social relationships with peers, preferring instead to socialize with friends with whom they share similar at-risk  behaviors  and  activities  (50-52).  Our  results in  part  confirm  this  line  of  research  and  demonstrate that the presence of an unsatisfactory face-toface  social  world,  which  is  characterized  by  poor close  friendships  in  terms  of  best-friend  conflicts, leads  adolescent  girls  to  search  for  emotional  support on the Internet.

The  results  of  the  current  study  may  have  important clinical relevance for the planning of school-based interventions in Italy, especially among adolescents enrolled on non-traditional school tracks, by suggesting the introduction of interventions that are aimed at teaching strategies for the management and resolution of conflicts. An intervention that is aimed at improving these abilities may also enhance adolescents' social skills as well as the  quality  of  their  friendships.  Activities  aimed  at instructing  adolescents  about  the  safe  and  correct use of the Internet may be structured and added to the  proposed  interventions.  Future  research  could also take into account adolescents who suffer from certain developmental disorders (e.g., attentiondeficit/hyperactivity  disorder,  autism)  during  the development of any new assessments or treatments that may better address both offline and online relationships.  Future  studies  could  also  consider  the role  of  positive  face-to-face  friendship  quality  to further  deepen  the  process  of  online  friendship formation during adolescence.

This study clarified some of the processes underlying the growing use of the Internet by adolescents in recent years. Examining the role of these mechanisms  may  be  useful  to  better  understand  how online communication could have a positive and favorable  impact  on  adolescents'  development  and how  it  could  help  adolescents  to  compensate  for difficulties related to their own internal and external worlds.

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