Youth and the Internet

Abstract

How many youth have Internet access? Where and how often are they accessing the Web? What types of activities do they engage in when they are online? These are a few of the questions asked in a study conducted by faculty members in the department of library and information studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo; the Institute of Museum and Library Services funded the research, which was completed in 2004. (1) This article presents a portion of information from the larger study, which explored the impact that youth's use of the Internet had on their use of the public library, as well as their reasons for use or nonuse of the public library. Research Methods The University at Buffalo (UB) researchers designed the survey, which contained questions related to Internet use, as well as some demographic inquiries. Before administering the survey, researchers sent a copy of the questionnaire to administrators and teachers at the participating schools and asked for possible changes to the questions. They wanted to make certain the questions used age-appropriate language that would easily be understood by middle and high school students. Additionally, one of the researchers pretested the questionnaire at one middle school and one high school by having a small sample of students complete the questionnaire and asking them to suggest any changes or additions. Researchers obtained completed questionnaires from 4,237 young people (grades 5 through 12) in public and private schools in the Buffalo-Niagara area of western New York during the spring of 2003. Urban, suburban, and rural schools were represented in the sample. Teachers administered the questionnaire during the students' regular classroom periods. The data were weighted to make them representative of current national ethnic and racial characteristics of students in public and private schools. Results and Discussion Sources of Access All of the youth in this study (100 percent) reported having access to the Internet from at least one location, but 1.8 percent of the students responded that they did not use the Internet and 0.8 percent reported that they did not have parental permission to use the Internet. Most of the youth (90.3 percent) reported having Internet access from more than one location, which included: * 85.8 percent from home; * 78.2 percent from the house of a friend or relative; * 66.2 percent from a school classroom or computer lab; * 58.5 percent from a school library media center; * 24.7 percent from a public library; and * 15.7 percent from some other place. Internet access in homes with similarly aged young people was somewhat higher in the current study than in other recent studies: Seventy-nine percent of Silicon Valley youth between the ages of 10 and 17, and 83 percent between the ages of 15 and 17, had Internet access at home. (2) Using the demographics gathered in the current study, some interesting and statistically significant (using a chi-square analysis) items resulted. For instance, male students were more apt to have Internet access at home (90.6 percent) than females (88.4 percent). Grade point averages, as reported by students from their last marking periods, also revealed statistically significant differences in Internet access at home: * A student: 93.5 percent * B student: 88.6 percent * C student: 86.1 percent * Less than C: 82.2 percent There was more Internet access in homes in which parents had more formal education: * Graduate degree: 97.5 percent * College graduate: 92.4 percent * Some college: 90 percent * High school graduate or less: 77.7 percent High school students were more likely to have Internet access at home (90.8 percent) than middle school students (88.3 percent). Students in private schools had more Internet access at home (96. …