Meg brings to NDR a research background in psychology, education, epidemiology and public health. A former high school math teacher and educational consultant, Meg is both highly analytic and able to clearly convey ideas and findings to a variety of audiences.

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An excellent writer, analyst and creative thinker, Rebecca consistently impresses us with her ability to convey complex research findings with clarity and nuance. Having worked as a literature professor and family planning counselor, she has a gift for understanding and describing human behavior.

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Read "The Créche," a comic strip written by Rebecca, published in the New York Times

We're also looking to hire another full-time employee, so if you know any bright, experienced researchers with excellent writing skills, send them our way!

a cultural trend that may be of interest to you

Over the past few years, we've conducted several interesting studies that involve parent-teen relationships, and we've spotted a trend with important implications for marketing and communications to young people on the brink of adulthood. According to our research findings, when teenagers leave home to go to college, they actually begin to feel closer to their parents. They go from "Don't touch me!" to "Text me back!"

As part of a study about HPV (human papillomavirus), we heard about the strong connection many college-age women have with their mothers. Communicating with their moms, including texting several times a day, is seen as an integral part of their daily lives. To them, there is nothing strange or embarrassing about this. They're close with their mothers, interested in sharing with them and eager to take their advice.

Interestingly, in a study involving parents and pre-college teens learning to drive, we saw the opposite. Young people still living with their parents are more likely to fall into the traditional "get away from me" camp, longing for freedom from parental constraints.

These findings shed light on an interesting social dynamic with implications for clients who market to young people. In the driving study, teens reacted negatively to images of chummy parent-teen relationships, preferring depictions of independence. In a year or two, their feelings may change. Based on the HPV study, we saw that as teens leave home for college, they begin to feel closer to their parents, and are increasingly open to parental guidance and involvement. Parents (and sometimes even grandparents) may actually become conduits for marketing communications.

Clearly, closeness between parents and young adults varies from family to family, depending on multiple factors. However, these two recent studies indicate a significant shift between high school and college, which has important implications both for us, as researchers, and for our clients' marketing strategies.

upcoming "improv" presentation at 2008 QRCA conference

This coming October, Nancy and Andrea, along with colleague Sarah Peterson of StrategyOne, will present a talk called "Learning to Go With the Flow: Improvising in Market Research" at the annual QRCA conference in Fort Lauderdale. We'll focus on embracing the unexpected in traditional and non-traditional research, and we'll even do some improv exercises to get the audience loosened up.

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