and links to face-to-face contacts in adolescence: an HBSC study in 31 European and North American countries and regions

Objective: Because the potential for electronic media commu-nication (EMC) has increased greatly, it is of interest to describe trends in EMC between adolescents and their friends and to investigate whether EMC facilitate or supersede face-to-face contacts among peers. Methods: Answers of 275,571 adolescents concerning contact-ing friends by means of the phone, text messages, and the in-ternet (i. e. EMC), the number of close friends, and the number of afternoons and evenings per week spent out with friends were analysed by means of v2-tests and multiple regression. Results: In 2006, between more than one third (11-year olds) and nearly two thirds (15-year olds) communicated electroni-cally with their friends daily or nearly daily. From 2002 to 2006, EMC increased in almost all participating countries. Particularl