COMMON SENSE RESEARCH CONNECTION AND CONTROL: Case Studies of Media Use Among Lower-Income Minority Youth and Parents CONNECTION AND CONTROL: Case Studies of Media Use Among Lower-Income Minority Youth and Parents Common Sense Research Introduction 3 Methods 5 Key Insights 7 Carla and Jaden: A Brother-Sister Team 12 Andre: A Video Gamer and a Reader 18 Makayla: Reading as Part of a “Weird” Identity 22 Gabe and Samuel: Brothers 26 Markus: A Video Gamer with Equipment “Limitations” 34 Jayla: ”This Lady Blows Up My Phone” 38 Jasmine: Living in Two Worlds 42 Chris: Media Practices Through a Transition 46 Zara: ”I Got Clout” 50 Conclusions 55 References 61 Appendixes 62 Appendix A: Screening Tool . 62 The case studies were conducted with support from the Thrive Foundation for Youth. Appendix B: Youth Media Practices Interview Protocol . .63 Appendix C: Youth “Device Tour” Guide. 64 Appendix D: Parent/Guardian Media Practices Interview Protocol . 65 Appendix E: Experience Sampling Protocol . 65 www.thrivefoundation.org CONNECTION AND CONTROL:CASE STUDIES OF MEDIA USE © COMMON SENSE MEDIA INC. 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. AMONG LOWER-INCOME MINORITY YOUTH AND PARENTS 1 INTRODUCTION Board of Directors 66 Media experiences and practices among youth are often The recent Common Sense Census: Media Use by Teens and Tweens discussed as if children were a monolithic group. However, the (2015) (referred to as the Census throughout this report) ways in which youth use media are far more complicated and examines the full range of youth media use, including where, how Board of Advisors 67 varied. Simply put, different youth use media differently, often, and in what contexts youth engage with media. Some depending on their age, living circumstances, interests, access, striking results emerged from this study, including the finding that and a range of other considerations. Despite the temptation to teens (13- to 18-year-olds) spend an average of about nine hours label children’s media use as “screen time,” it is inaccurate to a day using media, excluding for homework and in-school use. Yet lump together different forms of screen media use, because each the range of hours is quite broad (from no time at all to over 10 serves different needs. It also would be a mistake to assume that hours), and what precisely these teens are doing during these there is a “typical teen media user” given the many reasons teens hours varies tremendously. The Census also reveals striking engage with media and the varied contexts in which media use information about the digital equality gap between higher- and occurs. Youth watch videos, play games, interact with friends, lower-income families: For instance, over 90 percent of youth in take and share photos, create art, and engage in many other higher-income families have a laptop in the home while just over activities using media and technology. Statistics are helpful for 50 percent of kids in lower-income families do. Youth from painting a broad portrait of youth media use, but case studies can lower-income families also are less likely to have access to a be instrumental in understanding the stories and lives of youth, smartphone or a tablet. Furthermore, lower-income youth and and they can provide a window into what teens’ media use reveals minority youth spend more hours with digital media than their about their development. In this report, we delve into the real higher-income counterparts. Teens from lower-income families lives behind the numbers to understand the “what” and “why” of spend more time with media than those from higher-income the significantly higher hours spent by lower-income minority families: 10 hrs. and 35 mins. (10:35) vs. seven hrs. and 50 mins. youth on media. Responding to recent findings, we focus on (7:50) of total media use. Moreover, the Census indicates African-American and Latino youth in lower-income households. differences across race/ethnicity in media use that we examine. TABLE 1. TWEEN MEDIA PROFILES* Video Social Mobile Heavy All Light Users Gamers Networkers Gamers Readers Viewers Percent of all tweens 100% 27% 23% 15% 14% 11% 10% Total screen media 4:36 1:35a 6:42b 7:54b 4:48c 1:34a 5:55b Total media 5:55 2:16a 7:41b 9:59b 6:17c 3:44d 7:15bc Average time per day with each media activity: a b b c a d Watching TV/DVDs/videos 2:26 1:05 3:00 3:12 2:26 1:00 5:08 a b c d a a Playing games 1:19 :18 3:06 1:12 1:57 :18 :29 a b c a a a Video :35 :04 2:10 :24 :04 :02 :03 Computer :11 :08 :16 :10 :09 :09 :20 a b b c a a Mobile :33 :06 :41 :39 1:44 :07 :06 a ac b c ac ac Listening to music :51 :33 :45 1:44 :48 :36 :50 a b b b c b Reading :29 :09 :17 :21 :43 1:35 :31 Using social media :16 — — 1:43 — — — Note: A dash (“—”) indicates that the mean is zero minutes by definition of the media type. Superscripts are used to denote whether differences between groups are statistically significant (p<.05). Items with different superscripts differ significantly. Items that do not have a superscript, or that share a common superscript, do not differ significantly. * Common Sense Media, 2015 CONNECTION AND CONTROL:CASE STUDIES OF MEDIA USE CONNECTION AND CONTROL:CASE STUDIES OF MEDIA USE 2 AMONG LOWER-INCOME MINORITY YOUTH AND PARENTS © COMMON SENSE MEDIA INC. 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © COMMON SENSE MEDIA INC. 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. AMONG LOWER-INCOME MINORITY YOUTH AND PARENTS 3 TABLE 2. TEEN MEDIA PROFILES* Heavy Gamers/ Social METHODS All Light Users Viewers Computer Users Readers Networkers Percent of all teens 100% 32% 26% 20% 13% 10% Total screen media 6:40 2:26a 13:20c 6:57b 3:00d 7:03b Total media 8:56 3:40a 16:24c 9:17b 5:58d 9:34b The report is based on 11 case studies (Stake, 2006) of ages of 11 and 15 with free and reduced lunch status. We focused Average time per day with each media activity: African-American and Latino teens between the ages of 11 and 15 on a restricted age group (by comparison, the Census looks at a b c c c Watching TV/DVDs/videos 2:38 1:09 6:24 1:34 1:22 1:34 from households receiving free and reduced lunch. We used 8- to 18-year-olds) so that we could better compare participants a b c ac bc Listening to music 1:54 1:15 2:40 1:59 1:32 2:16 quasi-ethnographic research methods, designed to gain depth of with each other analytically. Following our protocol, we began by a b b a a Playing games 1:21 :32 2:11 2:27 :30 :44 understanding of youth media practices, not breadth or obtaining parental consent before asking youth any study-related a b b a a Video :37 :18 :57 1:12 :12 :12 generalization (Patton, 2002). This type of methodology, in which questions. a b the focus is on a detailed investigation and analysis of a small Computer :19 — :28 1:00 — — We used purposeful and snowball sampling to recruit one to two a b a ac bc group of participants, is particularly suited to our research Mobile :25 :14 :46 :15 :18 :31 participants of different media types while also maintaining a a b c d e questions, which focus on the participants’ perspectives and the Using social media 1:11 :15 2:09 :53 :20 3:17 relatively equal number of boys and girls. Interviews were processes that undergird media use. Data were collected between Reading :28 §a :32b :29b 1:31c :22b scheduled either in the family’s home, at Kids’ Rec, or, for one June 13, 2016, and August 12, 2016. family, over Skype, to respect the schedules of the participants § Less than one minute but greater than zero. * Common Sense Media, 2015 Site and Participant Recruitment and Selection. Participants were and the living situation of each family (e.g., whether they had a Note: A dash (“—”) indicates that the mean is zero minutes by definition of the media type. Superscripts are used to denote whether differences between groups are recruited from three branches of a regional nonprofit organization single-family apartment or a shared living space). Some statistically significant (p<.05). Items with different superscripts differ significantly. Items that do not have a superscript, or that share a common superscript, do not (given the pseudonym “Kids’ Rec” here and throughout the interviews took place on a single day, while others were spread differ significantly. report) that serves children and youth primarily through across two or three days. When data collection concluded, For instance, African-American teens use an average of 11:10 of understand which devices they use and which activities they after-school and summer activities. All branches were in a parents and children were each given a gift card ($20 and $30 media a day compared with 8:51 among Latinos and 8:27 among engage in, how they use their devices, and the meanings they and metropolitan area in the mid-Atlantic. We recruited local site respectively) to thank them for their participation. whites. There is a significant overlap in the U.S. among the their parents draw from media use. These portraits reveal the directors, each of whom helped us recruit youth between the demographic factors of income and race/ethnicity, which is complexity of their media practices and, perhaps most striking, reflected in the Census.