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Di Zhang
Instructor: Lorraine Bruce
LIS 560 A
24 January, 2011
The Information Behavior of Parent of Teenagers
It is commonly said that being a parent is the most difficult job in the world. Parents of
teenagersface an especially difficult assignment, for the adolescent years are a period of rapid
growth during which parents must expect the unexpected: the teenage mood swings, the
occasional inability of teens to foresee the consequences of theiractions, and the verbal
outbursts including the classic “I hate you, Mom/Dad!” This, according to Dr. Giedd of the
National Institute of Mental Health, is because just before puberty there is an over-production
of cells in an area of the brain called the frontal cortex, a “second wave” of over-production
(Spinks, 2002).1The frontal cortex is the “all-important part of the brain” that sits behind the
forehead and is responsible for planning and decision-making. Dr. Giedd uses the analogy of a
tree—the over-production of extra “branches” during adolescence necessitates pruning, and
that pruning determines the future wiring of the adolescent’s brain. This pruning is an ongoing
process that is directed by the adolescent’s activities (or lack thereof), their information
environment, and the parental supervision, guidance, and support they receive. Parents today
are working more hours to support their families compared to previous generations. As a result,
many teensfind themselves with more free unsupervised time during a period in their lives
when they are most likely to experiment with risky behaviors (APA, 2002).2This dilemmamakes
1
The “first wave” begins in the womb and ends during infancy.
2
APA stands for American Psychological Association
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raising a teen a complex and difficult balancing act. Parents of young adults thus have a diverse
set of needs that require a similarly diverse set of information literacy skills, several of which I
address in this paper.
A Note on the Literature Review and the direction of this paper:
In this paper, I will be primarily focused on the needs and behaviors of teens in
explaining the information needs of parents.3The reasoning for this is two-fold: firstly, parents
are defined by their relationships with their children. Their information behavior is inextricably
linked to and often dependent upon the behavior of their children, who are undergoing rapid
physical, cognitive, and emotional development under their care and guidance. Secondly, while
there have been numerous studies on parents, surprisingly few of them have focused on the
information seeking, needs, and behavior of parents. Case (2008), in his textbook on
information seeking, needs, and behavior, cites only studies that are centered on parenting.
One of the studies is about homeless parents while the other is primarily concerned with the
information behavior of children (p. 303). Case also notes that teenagers are another
understudied group (p. 304). For this reason, I have chosen to rely primarily on research done
by organizations such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and library professionals
who serve young adults rather than scholarly information behavior research.
General Needs:
In 2003, Shenton and Dixon set out to create a comprehensive typology of teens’
information needs, arriving at eleven major types: advice, personal information, affective
3
In this paper, the terms “teens” and “adolescents” will be used interchangeably.
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support, empathetic understanding, support for skill development, school-related subject
information, inter-driven information, consumer information, self-development information,
reinterpretations and supplementations of information, and verification information. All of
these needs, with perhaps the exception of consumer information,are greatly facilitated by
parental guidance. For instance, parents can help their children feel emotionally supported by
listening as much as possibleand showing acceptance, forgiveness, encouragement, and
unconditional love. These skills could be improved by seeking information from guidance
counselors, pastors, as well as more experienced parents.
Moreover, parents often underestimate the importance of validating and reinterpreting
(putting their stamp on, so to speak) the information their children receive. Teens receive large
amounts of information from myriad sources, whether serendipitously, through independent
searches prompted by curiosity, being told by someone, or other ways. Parents need to be able
to monitor, filter, reinterpret, and determine the validity of this information. For example,
Pattee (2006) found that teens desire more information about sex whether or not they are
sexually active. She also found that while teens get a great deal of information about sex from
media, they also seek supplementary information and critiques of media messages from
parents and friends, who are more trusted sources.
Finally, according to the APA (2002), most adults agree about what kinds of things adults
should do with young people— “encourage success in school, set boundaries, teach shared
values, teach respect for cultural differences, guide decision making, give financial guidance,
and so on” (p. 7). However, when it comes to actually acting on these beliefs, most adults fall
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short in giving young people the support they need. This may be due to the fact that the
numberof parental responsibilities has remained high while the amount time parents they
spend with their kids has decreased in recent generations. Parents may simply feel too
overwhelmed to over all the bases.The ability to identifying specific barriers to carrying out
one’s full parental responsibilities and to find resources to lessen those barriers is highly
important.
Risky behaviors:
The APA considers the greatest factors to adolescent drug abuse to be “lack of
supervision of youth, unclear expectations of youth behavior, and no (or only rare) rewarding of
positive behavior” (p. 32). During the teenage years, the brain has not matured to the point at
which it can optimally make decisions and foresee the consequences of those decisions. Thus,
teens can sometimes overestimate their ability to handle new situations and new problems,
especially since they are under significantly less supervision compared to previous generations.
Parents need to monitor the whereabouts of their children to make sure that they are in safe
environments and within reach of a trusted adult who can help them. Parents also need to be
able to set clear expectations, boundaries, and consequences for the behaviors of their children.
Lastly, the APA article argues that there is too much emphasis on the negatives of adolescence
and not enough rewards for good behavior. Parents must understand that risk-taking is an
unavoidable andnecessary partofadolescent development, or “shaping identities” as APA calls it
(p. 32). They need to guide and challenge adolescents in positive ways rather than focusing on
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the negatives. Parents need to understand the benefits of positive reinforcement as a strategy
of steering adolescents away from dangerous behaviors and toward more healthy behaviors.4
Conclusion:
Children often mention their parents when asked whom they admire. As one teen puts
it: “I think you can put more trust in your mom than you can in anybody else” (Spinks, 2002).
Parents are in a unique position to apply their information literacy skills in raising teens, firstly
to monitor and shape the information behavior of teens and secondly to locate, evaluate, and
use information for parenting.
To summarize my earlier points, here are some important needs and skills that parents
of teens face as an information user group:
Need:Supporting children emotionally.
Skill: The ability to process and respond to affective information.
Need: Monitoring and verifying information.
Skill: The ability to evaluate information sources for value, reliability, and accuracy.
4
A Note on Parental Information Behavior
McDonough’s (2007) study is the only research that I found on specific information behaviors of parents.
The study focused on the parents of young children. I hypothesize that similar results would be found if the
subjects were parents of teenagers. McDonough’s study found 5 general information needs by parents: 1) health-
related information; 2.) product information; 3) school information; 4)child development information; 5) career-
related information. Trends that the study found include: information needs are frequent and predictable, and
often oriented around family needs. McDonough also found that the internet was used as a primary information
source, although family and friends were also important sources. Lastly, library usage was low in general and was
virtually a nonfactor in information searches. McDonough’s findings were helpful in formulate the survey
questions for my user group.
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Need:Acting on personal ideals of parenting.
Skill: The ability to identifying information needs and to find and use the appropriate
resources when facing specific barriers.
Need: Making sure that children are supervised and knowing their whereabouts.
Skill: The ability to track and store up-to-date information.
Need: Setting expectations, boundaries, and consequences for teen’s behavior.
Skill: The ability to record, store, and retrieve information.
Need: Implement positive reinforcement in interactions with children.
Skill: The ability to utilize qualitative information to develop strategies of action.
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References
Case, D.O. (2008).Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs,
and Behavior (2nd ed.). UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Developing Adolescents: A Reference for Professionals. American Psychological Association.
(2008). Retrieved from APA Web site: http://apa.org/pi/families/resources/develop.pdf
McDonough, H. (2007). “Dragging a Three-Year-Old to a Library”: The Information Behavior of
Parents of Young Chidren. Southern Connecticut State University. Retrieved from:
http://myriadeyes.com/MLSCapstonePortfolio/CoursesTaken/McDonough_ILS537_Gro
up_Information_Behavior.htm
Pattee, A. (2006). The secret source: Sexually explicit young adult literature as an information
source. Young Adult Library Services, 4, 30-38.
A. Shanton and P. Dixon. Just what do they want? What do they need? A study of the
information needs of children, Children and Libraries 1 (2003), pp. 36-42.
Spinks, S. (2002). Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain. Retrieved from PBS Web site:
http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/etc/script.html
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Survey:
1. What is your age range?
a. 20-29
b. 30-39
c. 40-49
d. 50-59
e. 60-69
f. 70 or over
2. How many children do you have?
3. What are the ages of your children?
4. Which of the following types of information do you commonly need?
a. health-related information
b. product information
c. school information
d. child development information
e. career-related information
f. other information
5. If you answered “other” in the previous question, please specify.
6. How often do you use the Internet to seek information?
a. several times a day
b. once a day
c. once or more per week
d. once or more per month
e. rarely
f. never
7. How often do you seek information from family members?
a. several times a day
b. once a day
c. once or more per week
d. once or more per month
e. rarely
f. never
8. How often do you seek information from other parents?
a. several times a day
b. once a day
c. once or more per week
d. once or more per month
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e. rarely
f. never
9. How often do you seek information from your child’s school?
a. several times a day
b. once a day
c. once or more per week
d. once or more per month
e. rarely
f. never
10. How often do you seek information from a library?
a. several times a day
b. once a day
c. once or more per week
d. once or more per month
e. rarely
f. never
11. Please briefly list a few examples of information that you found yourself needing or
searching for in the past 3 weeks.
12. What sources of information did you use to search for this information?
13. Where these sources helpful? Why or why not?
14. What, if anything, could have improved your search?
15. If you can, please describe an incident in which you needed information quickly. Briefly
describe how you went about searching for the information and how successful you
were in finding it.
16. If you can, please describe an incident in which you had to give information to someone.
Briefly describe the situation, including whether you were successful in giving the
information.
Survey URL: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/zhangdi/122879
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