Research Roundup: Youth Voice Project, New! Ypulse Report & More
Posted by meredith on 03-11-2010Today we bring you another installment of the latest youth research available for sale or download. Remember if your company has comprehensive research for sale that focuses on youth between the ages of 8 and 24, email me to be included in the next Roundup.
America, Meet Your Millennials
Millennials, the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium, are confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change. They are more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults. They're less religious, less likely to have served in the military, and are on track to become the most educated generation in American history. To learn more about the most-talked-about generation and gain a more granular understanding of how core values and behaviors differ by race, ethnicity, class, gender, ideology, partisanship, geography and religiosity, Pew Research Center puts forth the latest in a yearlong series of reports that hopes to provide a portrait of Generation Next. Cost: Free
For more.. read the executive summary and download the full PDF on the Pew Research Center site. Also check out our coverage (part one, two and three) from the daylong Millennials conference hosted by Pew Research.
Digital Natives vs. Digital Naives
Another study aims to set the record straight on generational reputation: growing up on digital media has not made Gen Y universally savvy with information and communication technologies. The Web Use Project report Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses among Members of the “Net Generation" illustrates this by drawing on data on a diverse group of young adults’ Internet uses and skills. The results posit that even when controlling for Internet access and experiences, people differ in their online abilities and activities. Additionally, findings suggest that "Internet know-how is not randomly distributed among the population, rather, higher levels of parental education, being a male, and being white or Asian American are associated with higher levels of Web-use skill. These user characteristics are also related to the extent to which young adults engage in diverse types of online activities."
For more… read the summary and download the PDF.
Mighty, Mighty Mallrats
Teenage girls—are still driving profit, despite the grinding recession, in ways that almost no one had imagined. The recently released white paper “The Teenage Girl as Consumer and Communicator” from Euro RSCG Worldwide PR explores the spending and communications habits of girls ages 13-18, who according to the study are "spending more than $200 billion each year." Social shopping sites and fashion-themed virtual worlds will be happy to hear the paper proves that a sense of intimacy with a select group of friends and family drives almost all their social interaction—including shopping, which the study characterizes as a core social activity for teenage girls. Cost: N/A
For more… see the white paper on The Sisterhood site powered by Euro RSCG Worldwide PR.
Bullying: Listening Up and Reaching Out
A new study of nearly 12,000 US students in grades 5-12 offers important insights into bullying victims' own views on what causes bullying, how it affects them, and what does and doesn't work in dealing with it. The students, surveyed by the Youth Voice Project, revealed that middle school needs particular attention, since "the majority of traumatized students are in grades 6-8." The results also point towards a need to instill tolerance, empathy, perspective-taking into students with "Looks" coming up as the focus of 55% of moderate-to-very-severe mistreatment and "Body Shape" of 37%, In terms of solutions, students reported that "being heard and acknowledged seems to help victims more than most responses by both adults and peers."
For more.. download the PDF on the Youth Voice Project page.
If Teens Let Their Thumbs Do The Shopping
Text answer service ChaCha has released a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, to gain perspective on brand preferences of teens and young adults. Some findings — designer jean brands like True Religion and Lucky Brand are predominantly attracting questions from females — will come as less of a surprise than others like the tidbit that recent retail straggler Abercrombie & Fitch came in second (28% ) over Urban Outfitters as most-searched retail clothing store (first was surf brand Hollister, which made up 36%). Cost: N/A
For more… see the full report.
E-xtra credit: Fun With Digital Media
Conventional wisdom about young people’s use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today’s teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth’s social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings-at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces.Cost: $29.92
For more… see the Scribd presentation on Barking::Robot or buy Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out on Amazon.
Teen Driving: Hazards Ahead
The Allstate Foundation recently conducted a new survey, Shifting Teen Attitudes: The State of Teen Driving 2009, as a follow up to the CHRONIC: A State of Teen Driving in 2005 survey. Shifting Teen Attitudes: The State of Teen Driving 2009 found that while today's teen drivers have similar attitudes and behaviors behind the wheel than teens in 2005, shifts have taken place in unexpected areas — revealing an increase in risky behaviors among girls with more admitting to multitasking while driving than boys – especially when it comes to socializing. Out of the kids surveyed, 50% said they have texted while driving, although researchers believe the actual number is probably much higher. Cost: N/A
For more… see highlights on the Allstate site.
The Ypulse Report – February 2010: The College Textbook Marketplace
The February Ypulse Report takes a deep dive into the textbook marketplace. In a detailed analysis of decision-making patterns, purchase channels and attitudes towards the shopping experience, we see today’s college students as an informed and subsequently frustrated breed of typical Gen Y consumers. Anxiously awaiting a cost-effective revolutionary overhaul on par with the used book explosion (a habit of more than four out of five students), Millennials are slowly, but surely starting to consider the new wave of alternatives. In the physical realm, textbook rentals are a small but growing acquisition method, currently practiced by one in ten students with Chegg.com at the front of a small, but rapidly growing pack. As for the digital frontier, as we’ve made so clear on Ypulse, the writing is on the wall. Still, it bears repeating that the race is on and becoming increasingly heated with rumblings from the textbook publishers (Macmillan) and e-reader developers (Amazon, Apple) growing louder all the time. Cost: $249
For more information.. go to the Ypulse Research page.
Categorized under: Ypulse Research
