Changes in the Telephone Calling Patterns of Adolescent Girls

Anderson, Peter B., Arceneaux, Elizabeth R., Carter, Donna, Miller, Amy M., King, Bruce M., Adolescence

INTRODUCTION

Each new era produces its share of folk wisdom or common knowledge that has not been subjected to scientific verification. A phenomenon that is commonly believed to be a part of the shifting pattern of adolescent behavior is the rate at which adolescent girls now call adolescent boys. Newspaper articles, television talk shows, and gossip all support the notion that teenage girls are now super "sexually aggressive" and call boys relentlessly at all hours of the day and night (Quintanilla, 1991). Nevertheless, two exhaustive literature searches failed to find any documentation of this reported change in telephone calling patterns. Speculations about the causes and meaning of this behavior change are without merit until the change itself has been confirmed. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that during the last 40 years the incidence of adolescent girls calling adolescent boys has increased.

METHOD

Subjects

Participants in the study were students at the University of New Orleans, a public, commuter university which includes a wide age range of adults encompassing a variety of lifestyles, orientations, socioeconomic strata, and ethnic backgrounds.

Procedure

Following approval by the Human Subjects Committee, a list of all current students was secured from the records office. All subjects were telephoned by one of four female investigators and asked to participate in a confidential survey, which consisted of 17 items. Gathering of basic demographic information was preceded by confirmation that the subjects were raised in the United States. Participants were then asked a series of questions about their telephone use between the ages of 8 and 18. Equal numbers of men and women in each of eight age categories …

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Publication information: Article title: Changes in the Telephone Calling Patterns of Adolescent Girls. Contributors: Anderson, Peter B. - Author, Arceneaux, Elizabeth R. - Author, Carter, Donna - Author, Miller, Amy M. - Author, King, Bruce M. - Author. Journal title: Adolescence. Volume: 30. Issue: 120 Publication date: Winter 1995. Page number: 779+. © 1999 Libra Publishers, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1995 Gale Group.

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