Objectives. School is an important context for adolescents’ growth and development, but quite little is known about their mutual social relations prevailing in school. In this paper, I tried to answer to this need by examining the relations between lower secondary school students from the perspectives of hanging out, school help and socio-digital participation. I investigate the structures of the networks, as well as, how the networks of genders differ from another and how different patterns of using technology are related to the networks. Moreover, I examine the networks of active and passive school helpers and the differences between schools. Methods. The data were collected from 7th graders (N = 192) from three lower secondary schools in Helsinki and concerned grade-level networks within school. The data were collected with a social network questionnaire and a questionnaire about socio-digital participation and digital skills. The methods included social network analysis (SNA) and statistical methods. With SNA I examined the structures of the networks and with statistical methods I classified participants according to level of school help and patterns of socio-digital participation and examine between group differences with t-test and ANOVA. Results and implications. The results showed that students had seven friends on average, and the hanging out networks were the biggest and densest of the examined networks. There were not gender differences regarding number of friends, but females had denser hangout networks than males. On average, school help was shared among six students. Providing help was common in general, and only few people did not take part in school help networks. Females sought and provided help more actively than males and had denser school help related networks. The closer analysis of school help groups showed that active school helpers (n = 74) had generally larger networks than passive school helpers (n = 118). On average, students took part in technology mediated activity with five students. There was no gender difference in the sizes of the networks of socio-digital participation, but again females had denser networks than males. There were differences between basic users (n = 102), gamers (n = 66) and creative participators (n = 20) mostly only in digital skills and help seeking so that creative participators had higher skills and they were especially active to seek help in their schoolwork. The visualizations of the networks, in turn, revealed that students’ networks were quite homophilic in terms of gender and student’s class. Overall, the study indicated that many adolescents have large networks in school and helping each other in schoolwork is common, but there are also big individual differences regarding within-school networks.

Aims. The use of digital media by adolescents is diverse and different from previous generations. Knowledge on the relationship between the use of digital media and gender or well-being is still relatively limited. This study investigated what kind of user groups of socio-digital participation exist among high school students, and whether these user groups vary in gender, excessive internet use, life satisfaction, school engagement, school burnout, and symptoms of depression. Methods. The study questionnaire (N = 1108) was collected as a part of the Bridging the Gaps project in the Spring 2018 from the second-year high school students of 12 different high schools in Helsinki. Of the respondents, n = 614 (55.9%) were girls and n = 393 (35.8%) were boys. The rest of the respondents stated that they were gender-neutral or did not answer the gender question. The user groups of socio-digital participation among high school students were examined by two-step cluster analysis, gender differences were examined by cross-tabulation and x^2 independence test. The differences between user groups in well-being and excessive internet use were examined by using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance, where gender was controlled. Results and conclusions. Five different socio-digital participation user groups were found among high school students: 1.) mainly engage in gaming, 2.) knowledge-oriented, 3.) leisure users, 4.) active players and creative participants and 5.) active social networkers and knowledge builders. Boys were more likely to be in game-oriented groups than girls, and girls more likely to be in social networking activity groups than boys. In addition, the adolescents who had used socio-digital devices on average or less reported less compulsive use of the Internet. User groups varied in well-being. The knowledge-oriented users reported partially better well-being compared to other user groups, but the connection was not linear. The differences between the other groups were less clear. Because the effect sizes of the differences between the groups were small, the links between well-being and the use of smart devices were also weak. Based on the results, it seems that mere active socio-digital participation or individual socio-digital activity is not related to well-being and there is a more complex connection in the background. In the future, it would be important to study more closely the use of smart devices among adolescents and their connection with well-being by looking not only at screen time, but also socio-digital activities.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between socio-digital participation (SDP), sleeping habits and well-being among 6th graders in Helsinki. More specifically, it was examined what kind of sleeping habits 6th graders in Helsinki have and how SDP is associated with 6th graders quality of sleep, amount of sleep, bedtime, and well-being. In addition, the purpose was to find out how the 6th graders' sleeping habits explain the association between SDP and well-being. This research setup was chosen because in previous studies the relationship of these three factors has not been studied in Finland among primary school students. The research setup was also relevant because the importance of adequate amount and quality of sleep for a growing 6th grader child is important from the point of view of learning and well-being. This study increases the understanding of parents and educators on how the use of technology and sleeping habits can affect children's wellbeing. The data (N=696) for this study were acquired from the Mind the Gap -research data which was collected from 33 primary school 6th graders in Helsinki in spring 2013. The respondents' sleeping habits were evaluated based on average values and the relationship between the preliminary variables were analyzed using the Spearman correlation factors. The relationship between socio-digital participation and sleeping habits on well-being as well the mediating effect of sleeping habits on socio-digital participation and well-being were evaluated using path analyses. All of the analyses were made separately for boys and girls. The results suggested that the 6th grader boys in Helsinki slept more and better than girls. Active use of sociodigital participation among girls had a negative effect in the quality and amount of sleep. Socio-digital participation had a similar effect on both girls and boys and was related to going to bed later. The quality of sleep for girls partly mediated the relationship between socio-digital participation, school burnout and satisfaction with life. The amount of sleep also partly explained the correlation between the socio-digital participation and satisfaction with life among girls. There were no mediating effects between the boys' sleeping habits on socio-digital participation and well-being.

Modernin tieto- ja viestintäteknologian myötä ihmiset ovat verkottuneempia kuin koskaan aiemmin. Tästä huolimatta yksinäisyyden on arvioitu yleistyvän monissa moderneissa yhteiskunnissa ja etenkin nuoren sukupolven keskuudessa. Teknologian psykososiaaliset vaikutukset ovat herättäneet paljon ristiriitaista keskustelua teknologiavälitteisen vuorovaikutuksen tutkimuksen kentällä. On esitetty, että teknologia voi korvata vuorovaikutusta lähiympäristön ihmisten kanssa ja lisätä sosiaalista eristäytyneisyyttä. Toisaalta teknologia voi myös tukea ja rohkaista sosiaalista vuorovaikutusta sekä tarjota uudenlaisia yhteisöllisyyden kokemisen mahdollisuuksia. Teknologian kehityksen myötä tutkimuksen on laajennuttava yhä enemmän multidimensionaalisiin välineisiin ja kiinnitettävä huomiota teknologiavälitteisen vuorovaikutuksen moninaisuuteen. Vastaten osaltaan näihin kysymyksiin tämä tutkimus tarkastelee lukiolaisten kokeman yksinäisyyden ja sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen välisiä yhteyksiä. Tarkemmin tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan lukiolaisten sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen ulottuvuuksia ja sosiodigitaalisen teknologian käyttöön liittyviä sukupuolieroja. Lisäksi selvitetään, onko lukiolaisten kokema yksinäisyys yhteydessä sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen ulottuvuuksiin ja ovatko yhteydet erilaisia tytöillä ja pojilla. Nuorten teknologiavälitteistä vuorovaikutusta tarkastellaan sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen käsitteen näkökulmasta. Yksinäisyyttä tarkastellaan nuorten psykososiaalisen hyvinvoinnin indikaattorina. Tämä tutkimus on toteutettu osana Mind the Gap -tutkimushanketta. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin laajaa kyselyaineistoa (N=1339), joka kerättiin 18 pääkaupunkiseudun lukiosta syksyn 2013 ja kevään 2014 aikana. Nuorten sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen ulottuvuuksia selvitettiin eksploratiivisella faktorianalyysillä. Sukupuolieroja tarkasteltiin muuttujien keskiarvojen ja keskihajontojen avulla. Yksinäisyyden yhteyttä sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen ulottuvuuksiin selvitettiin Pearsonin korrelaatiokertoimen ja lineaarisen regressioanalyysin avulla. Lukiolaisten sosiodigitaalisesta osallistumisesta löydettiin kolme ulottuvuutta: kaverilähtöinen osallistuminen, kiinnostuslähtöinen osallistuminen ja pelaaminen. Kaverilähtöinen osallistuminen oli selvästi yleisin tapa käyttää sosiodigitaalista teknologiaa. Vain pieni osa lukiolaisista käytti sosiodigitaalista teknologiaa kiinnostuslähtöiseen osallistumiseen ja pelaamiseen. Sosiodigitaalisen osallistumisen havaittiin olevan sukupuolittunutta pelaamisen ja kaverilähtöisen osallistumisen suhteen. Pojat olivat tyttöjä aktiivisempia pelaajia. Tytöt puolestaan käyttivät sosiodigitaalista teknologiaa poikia enemmän kaverisuhteiden ylläpitämiseen. Yksinäisyyden kokeminen selitti aktiivista kiinnostuslähtöistä sosiodigitaalista teknologian käyttöä ja pojilla aktiivista pelaamista. Lisäksi yksinäisyyden kokeminen oli yhteydessä vähäisempään kaverilähtöiseen osallistumiseen.