Colì Elisa, Paciello Marinella, Lamponi Ernestina, Calella Rubina, Falcone Rino
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Faculty of Psychology, Uninettuno Telematic International University, 00186 Rome, Italy.
Children (Basel). 2023 Aug 18;10(8):1408. doi: 10.3390/children10081408.
Social media have become increasingly embedded in adolescents' daily lives. Although these contexts have been widely studied, how trust in online relationships is built among adolescents is still an unexplored issue. By adopting the theoretical socio-cognitive model of trust, this study aims to explore the components of online trust as far as today's teenagers are concerned. The study involved 10 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 (M = 15.5). The data were collected using individual semi-structured, audio-recorded, and faithfully transcribed interviews. A deductive-inductive content analysis carried out with the NVivo10 software was performed on the textual material. Results show that adolescents seem to be aware of online trust value in "selecting" peers to be trusted. To protect themselves from the risks they are exposed to, they choose to interact with peers/friends who are already known in real life or are similar to them in terms of interests, ways of thinking, passions, and age. Additionally, others' competencies and willingness play an important role in adolescents' evaluations and decisions to rely on others online. The results of this study could be useful for developing awareness-raising interventions on the risks that adolescents are exposed to in order to promote "safe" relationships of trust and emphasize the possible positive use of technologies (e.g., by building online trust relationships using peer "safe" models).
社交媒体已越来越融入青少年的日常生活。尽管这些情境已得到广泛研究，但青少年如何在网络关系中建立信任仍是一个未被探索的问题。通过采用信任的社会认知理论模型，本研究旨在探讨就当今青少年而言网络信任的构成要素。该研究涉及10名年龄在12至18岁之间的青少年（平均年龄M = 15.5岁）。数据通过个体半结构化、录音并忠实转录的访谈收集。使用NVivo10软件对文本材料进行了演绎-归纳内容分析。结果表明，青少年似乎意识到在“选择”可信任的同龄人时网络信任的价值。为了保护自己免受所面临的风险，他们选择与现实生活中已经认识的同龄人/朋友互动，或者在兴趣、思维方式、爱好和年龄方面与他们相似的人互动。此外，他人的能力和意愿在青少年对是否在网上依赖他人的评估和决策中起着重要作用。本研究结果可能有助于开展提高认识的干预措施，以应对青少年所面临的风险，从而促进“安全”的信任关系，并强调技术的可能积极用途（例如，通过使用同伴“安全”模式建立网络信任关系）。
