The effects of friendship and antipathy networks on adolescent attitude similarity

Abstract

Friendship is seen as an important factor in influencing the peer-to-peer social relationships and attitudes during their adolescence. However, few researchers observe adolescents' antipathy networks and study the extent to which such negative relationship influences adolescents' behaviours and attitudes. In this study, I use social network analysis to estimate the influence of friendship and antipathy between adolescents by calculating Euclidean distance in network structure and compare the distance effects of these two opposite forces on their attitude similarity. The preliminary findings show that friends do not necessarily have similar attitudes towards any dimensions of life experience, but strong friendship networks provide significant support for adolescents' emotional stability, while antipathy networks enhance the tension and conflict between peer foes because of their similar attitudes on the strong sense of ego. This result implies that friends' similarity is not as significant as studies have overwhelmingly shown as prior studies argue. Friends' and foes' similarity could be associated with the friendship and antipathy networks only by understanding the context of the interaction.