Exploration into young people’s behaviour and attitudes to mobile technology and help-seeking

by The Mix Staff

Monday 7th October 2013

As part of our ‘supporting young people through mobile technology’ research we explored into young people’s behaviour and attitudes to mobile technology and help-seeking was key to assessing how YouthNet can meet their needs. This stage was divided into five different steps, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

What we did

The research explored young people’s behaviour and attitudes to mobile technology and help-seeking though various methodologies: online focus groups, an online survey, and offline focus groups.
Online focus groups

• Young people were recruited through (1) YouthNet’s network and (2) an independent recruitment agency.
• Young people’s demographics, use of technology, and experience in seeking help were explored at the recruitment stage ensuring different levels of digital literacy were included, as well as varying experiences of seeking help.
• A total of 28 16- to 25-year-olds in the UK took part in the online focus groups.
• Four online focus groups involving up to 10 people were conducted using the Clickroom technology – an interactive qualitative research tool.

Online survey

• An external agency was used to ensure a representative sample.
• The data was weighted to reflect the population of 16- to 25-year-olds and respondents were incentivised.
• A total of 1,004 16- to 25-year-olds in the UK completed the survey; of these 981 owned a phone with internet access.
• The survey was tested and piloted by five young users of YouthNet’s website before it went live.

Offline focus groups

• The recruitment consisted of a mix of channels: (1) YouthNet’s network – to recruit engaged users and (2) an independent recruitment agency – to recruit young people who didn’t know the service.
• A total of 14 young people were involved in the workshops. Young participants were mainly from the London area because the survey revealed there were no significant regional differences when it comes to seeking help through mobile technology.

Who we did this with

We asked more than a thousand young people about their behaviour and attitudes to mobile technology and help-seeking.

Table 1: Demographics of the online focus groups

Table 2: Demographics of the online survey