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A research team will capture and code the content of adolescent activity on Facebook, the most popular social networking website.  

Facebook communication will be analyzed from a sample of 200 adolescents participating in the ongoing study of friendships and social adjustment. The research team was led by Dr. Marion Underwood of The University of Texas at Dallas.

Underwood said, "The structure of Facebook has the potential to provide great social satisfaction but also painful social rejection." 

Starting this summer, and for each year of the two-year study, the adolescents and their parents will be asked to grant permission for the investigators to access the young people's Facebook communication by installing a Facebook application developed by Arkovi, an Ohio-based company.

The Facebook application will record wall posts, status updates, in-boxes and photo albums. All Facebook communication will be captured from all devices used. Facebook content will be stored by Arkovi and maintained in a searchable online archive maintained by another firm, Global Relay, for later coding and analysis. 

Studying the content of Facebook communication is vitally important because adolescents and young adults are heavily engaged in Facebook in ways that likely affect their relationships and adjustment according to the author.

The new research is supported by a more than $408,000, two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Underwood said, "This study will also illuminate whether some features of Facebook communication are related to psychological health for youth." 

"Nothing about Facebook has to be inherently negative. Teenagers may use Facebook in positive ways: to express their identities, share information with friends, plan social events and service projects and school activities, and as a means of seeking social support in times of stress," she added.