本研究目的是探討台灣青少年個人友誼網絡特性和班級總體互動結構,對個人友誼動態和總體友誼動態結構的影響,以及總體互動結構對青少年的網絡特性和友誼動態關係的影響。青少年個人友誼網絡特性以友朋相似性為測量,包括友朋屬性相似性和行為相似性。而總體互動結構以班級互動脈絡為測量,包括班級大小和班級類型(是否為男女合班)兩個變項。個人友誼動態則以青少年國二到國三的友誼變遷為測量,並以兩段式叢集分析將它劃分為友誼變遷類型。個人的友誼變遷類型彙整為班級總體的友誼變遷分佈,以作為班級總體友誼動態結構的測量。研究對象來自1996年至1998年期間,台北市33所不同國中共44個不同班級的1,343個有完整資料的青少年學生,分析的主要資料為其國中三年追蹤研究的朋友網絡資料。本研究採用兩階段叢集分析和兩層次順序性邏輯迴歸分析,結果發現青少年的友誼關係網絡是變動的,而不是固定的。青少年友誼變遷的班級分佈是不同的,而且是受到友誼互動脈絡(即班級大小或班級類型)的影響。在男女合班的青少年中,友誼傾向於低或中低變遷;但班級人數越多,青少年的友誼越傾向於較高的變遷。青少年的友朋屬性相似性對友誼變遷沒有影響,不過,部分的友朋行為相似性(抽菸行為、學業成績、一般休閒之活動參與等)對友誼變遷卻有顯著影響,且影響效果會因為互動脈絡的差異而有所不同。在理論層次上,台灣青少年的友誼是動態性的;青少年的總體友誼動態結構是受到班級總體互動結構影響的。同時,青少年個人網絡特性(特別是友朋行為相似性)對其友誼動態是有影響的,而且其影響效果又受到班級總體互動結構的影響。班級總體互動結構的不同內涵(班級大小或男女合班),對班級總體友誼動態結構有不同的影響。
While most previous studies focus on the effect of adolescents' characteristics on the friendship network and its structure, this study argues that both friendship network characteristics and the interaction context structure have significant effects on adolescents' friendship dynamics. It examines how the interaction context structure of friendship influences the effect of network characteristics on friendship dynamics. In this study, friendship network data from the 1996-1998 Panel Study of Taipei Youths is used to examine whether the friendship attributes and behavioural similarities of adolescents influence friendship changes and whether these effects vary across interaction contexts in terms of class size and class type to increase understanding of how adolescents' friendships evolve in a two-level conceptual framework. A two-stage cluster analysis is applied to characterize friends' change types and a two-level ordinal logit regression is utilized to investigate the research hypotheses. The results show that adolescents' friendship changes are dynamic rather than stable. The distribution of three ordinal types of friendship change varies by the interaction contexts and is influenced by class size or class type. Also, while the effect of friendship attribute similarity on friendship change is not significant, the effect of friendship behavioural similarity is somewhat prominent and is partially influenced by the interaction contexts as well. The findings indicate that friendship network characteristics and interaction context structure do have an influence on friendship dynamics among adolescents in Taiwan.