GENERATION M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, one of the largest and most comprehensive publicly available sources of information on the amount and nature of media use among American youth, provides a detailed look at current media use patterns among young people, and also documents changes in children’s media habits since the first two waves of the study, in 1999 and 2004. This study provides data about young people’s media use: which media they use, which they own, how much time they spend with each medium, which activities they engage in, how often they multitask, and how they differ from one another in the patterns of their media use.

The study includes a large national sample of more than 2,000 young people from across the country from ages 8 to 18, to track changes from childhood through the transitional “tween” period into the teenage years; explores a comprehensive array of media, including TV, computers, video games, music, print, cell phones, and movies; and gathers highly detailed information about young people’s media behavior, including responses to an extensive written questionnaire completed by
the entire sample, plus results from a subsample of approximately 700 respondents who also maintained week-long diaries recording their media use in halfhour increments.

Read the full Kaiser Family Foundation Study.