Loneliness and new technologies in a group of Roman adolescents

This study was carried out on 331 Italian secondary school students (64 females and 267 males; their mean age was 17.25, S.D. = 0.87). The first aim of this study was to explore the relationships among type of class (computer science or not), gender and socio-economic status and frequency and modality of using the computer, Internet and the mobile phone. The second aim was to explore the relationship between the use of Internet and feelings of loneliness. Two instruments were administered: a questionnaire to explore some of the social habits of adolescents and their use of the three technologies considered, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The results confirmed that those with a higher socio-economic status use Internet more; the computer is used more by those who frequent a computer science section and by those with a higher socio-economic status. Loneliness emerged in relation to gender (higher in females), but not in relation to socio-economic status. Moreover it emerged at both the univariate and multivariate level in relation to the use of Internet and in negative relation to frequenting an informal peer group. A positive relationship between feelings of loneliness and number of friends who go on-line emerged only at the univariate level. The use of the mobile phone was almost completely independent of the variables examined here. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.