Note: Please read all of the material on this site, including the frequently asked questions (FAQ) at the bottom of the page.

Parenting Teenager Discussion Groups

Parenting teens has always been a challenge, particularly if parents are also
grappling with their own developmental issues (e.g., midlife).  For this activity,
you will join a parenting discussion group over the Internet.  Ideally, you want to correspond to parents who have teens living in rural or urban areas.

Parenting discussion groups and chat rooms are easy to locate using traditional Internet search engines. In addition, major providers, such as AOL, YAHOO, and GOOGLE have discussion groups on just about any topic you can imagine, including parenting discussion groups.

There are a number of ways to collect data.  Perhaps the simplest is to observe
which issues, threads, or "conferences" are most commonly posted. In addition, in discussion groups, you can often scroll through the history of posted messages. Finally, I would like you to try posting some messages yourself, perhaps using some of the questions listed below (perhaps try posting several questions separately). While you are free to develop some interview questions, I suggest that they also include some of the interview questions listed below. 

Your observations and data can be incorporated into a short, written report (6-8 pages)--the write-up should heavily integrate course material. This means that you comment on your observations, and discuss how they relate or do not relate to material presented in class and the book. This is a major grading criteria. Paper must also be well-written, and college-level . If you happen to correspond with parents who reside in different areas (e.g., rural vs. urban vs. suburban), then try to compare their responses.

Some possible interview questions:

1.  Do you live in a rural, urban, or suburban area? How does living in such an area present a challenge to you as parent?
2.  What types of disputes do you experience with your teen?
3.  What coping mechanisms do you use to deal with these disputes?
4.  What are your feelings about your teen getting into steady romantic relationships?
What guidelines or rules will you (or have you) established?
5.  What are your feelings about your teen and part-time work?
6.  What types of changes have your experienced as a result of parenting a teen?
7. What are your feelings about the friends of your teens?
Do you have guidelines or expectancies that you share with your teen regarding their friends?
8.  Do you feel that your teen respects your decisions?  Why or why not?
9.  Do you feel that being a teen is more or less stressful than your own teen experience?
10.  What words of advice would you give to an individual just starting to parent a teen?

Some additional considerations:

*  Please append some of your data.  Particularly relevant would be a sample of responses
regarding your postings.

*  Your discussion group or chat room may have guidelines regarding "membership".
For example, some may be clearly marked "parents only".

*  If asked, make sure you clearly represent yourself as a student conducting an activity for class.

*  There are tons of sites that are devoted to people who work with adolescents, or deal with adolescents on a daily basis (e.g., teachers). You can alter this activity, and pursue such a route, but let me know what you are doing in advance.

* If you happen to interview parents who live in different locations (e.g., urban, rural, suburban), make sure you compare their responses.

Frequently Asked Questions:

FAQ 1: Dr. Creasey, why don't you suggest some sites? Well, this is a popular activity! I have suggested sites before, only to find out that 80% of the class selected the first site on the list. The sites can get overwhelmed if tons of students are accessing the same site. Look around, go deep, you will find what you are looking for.

FAQ 2: What do I do with the actual interview data, just paste it into the paper? The interview data that is on the web can be printed off. Just choose "Print" or "Print Screen" and it will print right off. This information must be appended, or placed at the end of your paper. This information does not count towards page length. You do not have to append all of the interview data, just enough to show that you really collected some interview data and are not making it up yourself.

FAQ 3: Do I have to really discuss the interview data in light of the course material? For example, can't I just write a paper on teen depression or parenting styles? No, this is not a term paper, please read the assigment guidelines again.

FAQ 4: I am a very poor writer, does that matter? There are services on campus to help you with your writing, please consider using them before you hand in your paper.

FAQ 5: Help, no one is responding! It is important to start this assignment up early in the semester. Students who complain about this issue typically start the assigment up too late. On the other hand, it is not required that you get responses. There is often plenty of history material in the discussion groups that you can use for your paper.