The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural
background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within
a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109
seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups:
major-culture (n = 50; 46%), bi-culture (n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture (n
= 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace
face-to-face, Facebook and academic support networks within each
classroom. Results of social network analysis revealed that bi-culture
students were culturally the most open to network with their classmates
in face-to-face contacts, Facebook connections and peer academic
support. Female students were more inclined to use Facebook to connect
with other female classmates, whereas males were equally likely to
connect with either gender via Facebook. No gender similarities were
found in academic support network although female students were more apt
to engage in academic support than their male counterparts.