Research Round-Up
Posted by anastasia on 08-11-2006There were so many interesting research oriented articles out there today that I decided to round them up in one post. First off is the new survey results released by Cable in the Classroom called "Parenting the MySpace Generation." (MySpace is loving that their name has now come to symbolize an entire generation.) Here are the top level findings from the press release.
- A majority of parents say they have sought advice from other parents (54 percent), and many (42 percent) have sought advice from their child’s school.
- One in ten parents (10%) say they are “not at all knowledgeable” about how to guide their children’s safe and responsible use of the Internet. [I think the number of these parents who wouldn't admit this is higher]
- Only about half of parents (49 percent) think that government and law enforcement agencies should have a lot of responsibility in ensuring that children have safe experiences on the Internet.
Cable in the Classroom is offering "a three-step approach including: setting rules, using parental control technology, and instilling media literacy skills." I would actually reorder this to instilling media literacy skills, setting rules and using parental control technology with younger kids.
The complete survey info can be found here.
Next up: Fewer teens are having sex in high school, and those who are have fewer partners. Also more teens are using condoms ( I posted another article recently that said the opposite on condoms…) From the Reuters article:
"Some 46.8 percent of students said they engaged in sexual intercourse in a 2005 survey, down from 54.1 percent in 1991, according to the report.
Some 14.3 percent of students in 2005 said they have had multiple partners, defined as sex with four different people during one’s lifetime. That figure is down from 18.7 percent in 1991.
At the same time, the number of students who say they used a condom the last time they had intercourse rose to 62.8 percent in 2005 from 46.2 percent in 1991, the survey said."
And from a very esoteric academic press release on international teens, consumerism and identity:
"The researchers studied an urban and rural setting in Denmark, and an urban and rural setting in Greenland. They found three structures of “common difference” among youth from all locales – identity construction, center-periphery concerns, and reference to “youth as a site of construction.” In other words, the teenagers they studied were all concerned with who they are, how they fit in, and what purchases fit their style.
However, a notable difference occurred between the urban and rural areas. Larger cities where choices are more numerous result in the attitude that possessions are a reflection of oneself; smaller cities without many purchase options result in a higher focus on the limitations of consumerism as self-expression."
P.S. Here's the full report from TRU on teens buying booze online.
P.P.S. The L.A. Times, reg. required, concludes its teen media/entertainment poll series today with an article about how tween girls are totally wired, multi-task, etc.
August 11th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I just returned from speaking about MySpace, Facebook, and the other social networking sites at the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers annual conference. I was amazed at how few of the college career service office professionals and employers in the room had ever visited MySpace or Facebook, yet the students that they're trying to help spend hours a day on those sites. Without exception, every person in the room wanted to learn more so that they could speak in an educated manner about the pros and cons of the sites. I love them — mostly — but also recognize that there are significant dangers to job seekers, employers, and others who use them.