FSD2533 Virtual Youth Work 2007: Youth Survey
shortcuts: data collection | citation | publicationsAuthors
Merikivi, Jani (Finnish Youth Research Society. Finnish Youth Research Network)
Other Identification/Acknowlegements
Sulake Corporation
Turku School of Economics
Abstract
The survey studied the social virtual world Habbo Hotel and online youth counselling carried out there by the Netari.fi project. The respondents were young people who use Habbo Hotel. Data were also collected from parents using the Suomi24 service (FSD2534).
First, the respondents rated the importance of various communication channels (press, radio, television, Internet and other communication networks, books, movies, mobile phone). The next set of questions covered patterns of Internet use: location of use, duration, frequency, location of computer at home, number of computers at home, type of user and for what used the Internet (e.g. online banking, music, chatting, games, shopping). The respondents were asked how familiar they were with a number of Finnish and international online web services and how strictly specific online discussion forums were moderated. Views were probed on how useful the Internet was for various things, for instance, for information searching, keeping in touch with others, shopping etc. The survey also investigated whether parents participated in the respondents' Internet use, what kind of advice they had given regarding the use, and whether they put any restrictions on the use.
Patterns of Habbo Hotel use were charted: frequency, duration, parental attitudes, activities done in Habbo during the past month, methods of acquiring property, membership in groups, use of money in Habbo etc. The respondents were also asked how important various aspects of Habbo were to them and to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to Habbo.
The survey investigated the use, opinions on and knowledge of the Netari virtual youth house and online youth counselling carried out there. The respondents were asked whether they had visited the youth house, how often, how they perceived the youth house and whether the presence of youth workers had increased the time or amount of money they spent in Habbo.
One theme pertained to money. Questions covered how much money the respondents received from parents and other sources and what they would do if they had more money. Futher questions explored how difficult it would be for the respondents to give up certain things (such as the mobile phone, certain things in Habbo, a real pet etc), how important a number of things (e.g. a fine room in Habbo or stylish clothes) were to them, and what kind of gifts they liked. Opinions on the best brands of mobile phones, clothes and magazines were charted. The respondents were also asked to define what kind of consumers they were.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, economic activity or at which level studying, number of siblings, household composition, type of accommodation, housing tenure, number of cars in the household, holidays abroad during the past year, and employment situation of the parents.
Keywords
consumers; expenditure; income; internet; online services; parental supervision; social media; virtual communities; youth; youth culture; youth work
Topic Classification
consumer studies; family studies; information society studies; sociology; youth studies (FSD Topics Classification)
consumption/consumer behaviour; family life and marriage (including household composition and generations); information society (including Internet use); social behaviour and attitudes; youth (CESSDA Topics Classification)
Restrictions
The variable identifying municipality of residence has been removed from the data. Names and other personal information appearing in responses to the open-ended questions have been anonymised.
Access to the data granted for scientific and teaching purposes. FSD's access application procedure.
Data Collector
Merikivi, Jani (Finnish Youth Research Society. Finnish Youth Research Network)
Data Producer
City of Helsinki. Youth Department
Save the Children Finland
Collection Date
28.6.2007 - 6.7.2007
Nation
Finland
Geographical Coverage
Finland
Analysis Unit
Individual
Universe
Users of the virtual networking service Habbo Hotel
Sampling Procedure
A link to the online questionnaire was provided for Habbo Hotel service users in the news section of the service between 28 June - 6 July 2007. Altoghether, there were 2,065 responses.
Collection Mode
Internet survey
Research Instrument
Semi-structured questionnaire
Time Method
Cross-sectional study
Collection Size
Data: SPSS portable file. Data available also in other file formats.
Data version
1.0 (24.1.2011)
Other Material
Questionnaire: pdf file in Finnish
Related Studies
FSD2534 Virtual Youth Work 2007: Parents' Survey
Data Appraisal and Notes
The data archive does not have the final version of the questionnaire. There are slight dissimilarities between the data and the preliminary version of the questionnaire the archive has.
Citation Requirement
The source must be acknowledged in any publication based wholly or in part on the data. The bibliographic citation may be in the form required by the publication, or in the form suggested by the archive.
Bibliographical Citation
Merikivi, Jani: Virtual Youth Work 2007: Youth Survey [computer file]. FSD2533, version 1.0 (2011-01-24). Helsinki: City of Helsinki. Youth Department & Helsinki: Save the Children Finland [producers], 2007. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2011.
Depositing Requirements
The archive must be informed of all publications where the data have been used.
Disclaimer
The depositor and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the secondary use of the data.
Related Publications
Merikivi, Jani (2007). Netari.fi - Nuorisotyön arvo. Helsinki: Nuorisotutkimusseura. Verkkojulkaisuja; 14.
