Where can I find free market research about tweens?

Question

I want to know what they watch, what sites they go to, what products they buy, etc.

Answer 1

The comprehensive market research studies, unfortunately are not free. And they are expensive - from $650 to $3,500!

But there are some studies that you can get on Tweens:

Pew Internet http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=162
Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052201903.html
YTVMedia.com http://www.corusmedia.com/ytv/research/index.asp
Media Awareness http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/issues_teens_marketing.cfm
IFOP http://www.ifop.com/america/tt/article_c.htm
TD Monthly http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly/June2003/Tweens_Generations.asp
Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2005/id20051012_606473.htm
Brandchild http://www.brandchannel.com/brand_speak.asp?bs_id=67

For books, I recommend you check out the following (definitely cheaper than buying a market research report):

kidfluence : The Marketer's Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation Y -- Kids, Tweens and Teens by Anne Sutherland, Beth Thompson http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071416226/ref=nosim/powerhomebizguid

The Great Tween Buying Machine : Capturing Your Share of the Multi-Billion-Dollar Tween Market (Paperback) by David Siegel, Timothy Coffey, Gregory Livingston http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/10793185998/ref=nosim/powerhomebizguid

If you have access to a library, you may want to check out the following studies on tweens:

Fisher, K. E., Marcoux, E., Meyers, E., & Landry, C. F. (Forthcoming, 2006). Tweens and everyday life information behavior: Preliminary findings from Seattle. In M. K. Chelton & C. Cool, (Eds.), Youth information seeking behaviors: Contexts, theories, models and issues, Volume 2. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Meyers, E., Fisher, K. E., & Marcoux, E. (Under Review). Studying the everyday information behavior of tweens: Notes from the field. Library & Information Science Research.

Fisher, K. E. (2005). The emotional frontiers of tweens and stay-at-home moms. Panel organized by D. Nahl. 2005 Annual Conference of the American Society for Information Science & Technology. Charlotte, NC.

Fisher, K. E., Marcoux, E. L. & Meyers, E. M. (2005). Tweens. Connecting Research and Practice: Special Populations. 5th Annual Research Symposium of the Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use (SIG USE) of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. October 29, Charlotte, NC

Answer 2

Entrepreneur has a great article here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,318067,00.html

Hope that helps!