Research

The strongest rationale in support of Stick With It! is from our research with more than 50 teens. We used a variety of methods to learn about the needs teens have, the things they struggle with and the underlying for their struggles, what would help them motivate to reach their goals, the strategies they use that help them reach their goals successfully, and what kind of support they think might help them in certain situation. Their responses have helped us to develop our ideas for this product.

Beyond the anecdotal evidence that teens shared with us, we also found a significant amount of research to support the creation of Stick With It! According to a study from the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, between 25% and 50% of all young people in the United States between ages of 10 and 17 are at risk for curtailed educational, economic, and social opportunities due to their involvement in high risk behaviors and activities, including violence and vandalism, unprotected sex, abuse of alcohol and drugs, skipping and failing school, etc. (Roeser, Eccles et al. 2000).

From another study conducted by SADD (Students against Destructive Decisions/Students against Drunk Driving) and Liberty Mutual Corporation called Teen Today 2002, there is a clear conflict between when teens decide to partake in destructive behaviors and when teens choose to not partake. We found similar results when we informally surveyed teens about what their needs are and the issues that they struggle with. It is exactly this struggle that our program addresses head-on, via education, reflection, and in the moment support.

Online Teen Behavior
There is a great deal of research supporting the decision to make online health information confidential and easily accessible to teenagers. A Kaiser Foundation study mentioned above found that among the 15-24 year olds surveyed more than two out of three have gotten health related information and nearly four in ten have changed their behavior because of health information they got online.

Mobile phone usage:
Young people also own and use mobile phones. Research from the US Census bureau shows that 12 million youth currently own cell phones--equal to nearly 51% of the U.S. teen population. Additionally, a study by mobileYouth predicts that penetration of mobile phones within the USA in the 15-19 age group will reach 77% by 2004. One needs only to step inside a high school, or a high schoolers’ hangout, to see how prevalent mobile technology truly is among teens. Stanford Professor BJ Fogg offers two theories that support the inclusion of mobile technology in our product, the Kairos and the Convenience Factor (Fogg 2002) :

The Kairos Factor—the principle of presenting your message at the opportune moment. Fogg believes that mobile phones can be leveraged as an ideal tool of persuasion because by “knowing a user’s goals, routine, current location, and current task, mobile systems will be able to determine when the user would be most open to persuasion in the form of a reminder, suggestion, or simulated response.”

The Convenience Factor—since a mobile phone is always with you and always on, it has a unique ability to interact and persuade, much more so than a computer, a self-help book, or a 12-step program.