A Study of High School Students' Cognition about Communication through LINE and the Effect of Friendships among Modern Adolescents on It

Abstract

LINE is a mobile application used mainly for communication with friends. Recently, LINE has become indispensable, particularly for young people. This study explored high school students' cognition about communication through LINE and revealed the effect of their friendships on it. High school students (N=423) completed a LINE scale that was constructed for this study and a Friendship scale in an online survey. Exploratory factor analysis yielded the following six factors: (1) “anxiety about being ignored,” (2) “ease,” (3) “sense of miscommunication,” (4) “increase in aggressiveness,” (5) “obsession with quick reply,” and (6) “sense of being close.” Subsequently, a multiple population analysis suggested that a psychological tendency to avoid being disliked by friends is one of the reasons for high school students' ambivalence about communication through LINE.