Purpose. Within the field of information science, adolescent information behaviour as a part of the general decision making process is a relatively under-examined area. The way adolescents interact with information when making decisions influences decision outcomes and consequently affects their lives. Therefore, the study of information behaviour in the decision making process is an important area for research development. The goal of this paper is to take a step to advance research in this direction by reviewing what has been learnt and offering directions for future work. Methodology. The existing publications reporting the research on adolescent information behaviour related to making everyday life decisions within the information science field were investigated using content analysis methodology. Twenty articles were selected and analysed in the following aspects: information behaviour, including information seeking, passive information acquisition and information avoidance, information sources, barriers to information seeking, information use and affective experiences. Findings. It was found that the research on the topic of decision making within the information science field is scarce. Few studies focus specifically on adolescent information behaviour for making everyday life decisions and they consider only one specific decision situation. The existing work reveals that adolescents employ a wide range of information behaviour when making decisions in everyday life, both active and passive: information seeking, passive information acquisition which encompasses passive search and passive attention, community approach, deferring information seeking and information avoidance. They use a variety of information sources, and source selection depends on internal and external factors. They face barriers which impede information seeking and use information to increase knowledge on decision situations and therefore help the decision making process. Adolescent information behaviour in this context proved to be accompanied with affective experiences. Limitations. Some limitations of the study refer to the coverage of the literature from the information science field, to the selection of the relevant literature and to summarizing of the findings given the limitations of the form, i.e. a single chapter. Originality. This study tackles one of the barely touched areas in information science and youth information behaviour research and raises some important questions which need to be addressed.
Cilj. Rad donosi pregled dosadašnjih spoznaja o načinu na koji adolescenti procjenjuju kredibilitet informacija i izvora informacija te ih sagledava iz aspekta donošenja informiranih odluka. Radom se želi ukazati na važnost razvijanja vještina adolescenata za učinkovito vrednovanje informacija s obzirom na ulogu informacija u procesu donošenju informiranih odluka. Metodologija. Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja jedanaest oda- branih objavljenih znanstvenih članaka koji se bave načinom na koji adolescenti procjenjuju kredibilitet informacija i izvora informacija. Radovi su analizirani s obzirom na sljedeće kategorije: načini na koje adolescenti procjenjuju kredibilitet informacija i izvora informacija, pojave koje mogu umanjiti uspješnost vrednovanja kredibiliteta i uzrokovati korištenje informacija koje nisu kredibilne, utjecaj dobi na procjenu kredibiliteta i implikacije za obrazovne programe medijskog i informacijskog opismenjavanja Rezultati. Adolescenti često nemaju dovoljno razvijene vještine za učinkovitu pro- cjenu kredibiliteta informacija i izvora informacija. Iako u nekim slučajevima vode računa o glavnim aspektima kredibiliteta i primjenjuju odgovarajuće postupke potvrde kredibiliteta informacija, u pregledanim istraživanjima utvrđene su pojave koje mogu voditi lošim procjenama kredibiliteta i loše utjecati na proces donošenja informirane odluke. Programi za medijsko i informacijsko opismenjavanje trebaju se usmjeriti na razumijevanje svrhe vrednovanja informacija i razumijevanje procesa mišljenja te na razvoj sposobnosti kritičkog mišljenja adolescenata. Potrebno je provoditi daljnja istraživanja vrednovanja kredibiliteta među adolescentima usmjerena na posebne skupine korisnika te specifične kontekste stjecanja, vrednovanja i korištenja informacija. Ograničenja. Rezultati istraživanja ograničeni su na jedanaest radova pronađenih pretraživanjem baza WoS i Scopus i objavljenih 2001. – 2021. Praktična primjena. Dobivena saznanja usmjeravaju programe informacijskog opismenjavanja prema razumijevanju svrhe i procesa vrednovanja informacija te razvoju kritičnog mišljenja. Predložena daljnja istraživanja mogu dati rezultate koji će pomoći u osmišljavanju programa za medijsko i informacijsko opismenjavanje adolescenata. Vrijednost. Rad ukazuje na važnost učinkovitog vrednovanja informacija u procesu donošenja informiranih odluka. Donosi uvid u dosadašnje spoznaje, iznosi implikacije za poučavanje adolescenata informacijskoj pismenosti te nudi smjer za daljnja istraživanja.
This paper presents the main methodological issues met with during the research on adolescent everyday life information behavior in the context of making informed decisions, which was carried out in Croatia from 2018 to 2020. It does not focus on the research results, but rather on the methodological issues and concerns that had occurred stemming from the specific life period of the population being investigated, and on the ways the researchers delt with them. They are offered as potentially useful for consideration to those who will investigate adolescent information behavior in other contexts. Six main methodological dilemmas arose while planning the design of research methodology coming out from six questions: what would be the appropriate research approach and design to investigate adolescent information behavior in the context of making informed everyday life decisions, what would be the developmentally appropriate way to investigate the phenomena, how to gain access to the potential adolescent research participants, how to negotiate an adult researcher’s position when interacting with adolescents, how to get adolescent participants’ trust needed to collect rich data and what ethical issues need to be considered. We offer an overview of the dilemmas and concerns, as well as the ways they were dealt with, acknowledging the contribution of those scholars who had responded to similar challenges in the past.
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