Explore this solution: Home Our Offerings Our Work About AmeriSpeak Contact
AmeriSpeak Teen is a nationally representative sample of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 recruited with a parent’s consent to take surveys for us.
AmeriSpeak Teen’s key features include:
- A probability (random) sample of teenagers, giving you assurance that data will be representative of American teens. Households are randomly selected to join AmeriSpeak. Parents give us consent to recruit, enroll, and survey their teens.
- AmeriSpeak Teen respondents are contacted separately from their parents. Once NORC has parental consent, we email and text teenagers directly to complete surveys, assuring clients that the teen is the one participating.
Ways to Access
- AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus: A multi-client, pay-by-the-question survey fielded each quarter to a sample of 1,000 teens. The Teen Omnibus is the quickest and most cost-effective way to reach a high-quality sample of U.S. teens. More on Teen Omnibus below.
- Custom Teen Surveys: Our Custom Surveys give you the flexibility to set your own schedules, sample plans, and questionnaires for reaching U.S. teens. This gives you an opportunity to ask questions on a wide range of topics, including sensitive issues that might require study-specific parental consent. Explore Custom Surveys.
Teen Omnibus
A swift, cost-effective way to survey a representative sample of U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17.
How It Works
Features
- Age Verified
Unlike convenience samples, where anyone claiming to be a U.S. teenager can respond, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based (random) sample of U.S. households scientifically selected and invited to participate. - Affordability
A pay-by-the question model makes it easy and cost-effective to reach a population that is ordinarily difficult and expensive to survey. - Fast Results
Quarterly multi-client surveys save considerable time relative to custom teen surveys. - Assurance
NORC receives advance permission from teens' parents so that we can contact teens directly for each survey. This also ensures that parents are not responding on a teen’s behalf.
Pricing
- Price: $2,000 per survey question (minimum of five questions)
- Sample size: 1,000 completed interviews
Deliverables
- Survey dataset in your preferred format
- Statistical weights
- Respondent demographics
- Banner table
- (Non-sensitive questions only)
Scheduling
The AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus operates once per quarter on a four-week timeline.
Questions are due to NORC on the first day of the cycle. NORC will spend approximately one week programming, testing, and obtaining NORC IRB approval; two weeks in the field; and one week cleaning, weighting and preparing the data.
Clients receive their data four weeks after questions are due.
| Wave | Questionnaire Due | Client Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | January 21, 2026 | February 25, 2026 |
| Q2 2026 | April 22, 2026 | May 27, 2026 |
| Q3 2026 | July 22, 2026 | August 26, 2026 |
| Q4 2026 | October 21, 2026 | November 25, 2026 |
Sensitive Topics
We can only include only non-sensitive questions in the AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus.
While parents have provided consent for NORC to contact and survey their teens, surveys with sensitive questions require us to obtain study-specific parental consent for that survey. Limiting the Teen Omnibus to non-sensitive questions helps us maintain the survey’s speedy pace.
Here are some example topics of what NORC deems sensitive and non-sensitive:
- Sensitive: Physical health, mental health and well-being, alcohol and drug use, illegal activity, criminal history
- Non-sensitive: Public opinion, consumer habits, media consumption, school and employment, hobbies/sports
Looking to field a survey on sensitive topics? Check out our Custom Surveys.
Our Custom Surveys give you tremendous flexibility to field questions of a more sensitive nature to our teen panelists.
By obtaining study-specific parental consent in advance, we help you get a wide range of survey content to our panelists, while still maintaining our industry-leading reliability and response rates.
Explore our Custom Surveys or contact us now to find out more.
Respondent Demographics
The following demographic variables are included in your AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus survey data file.
- Sex
- Age (in years)
- Educational obtainment of parents (highest)
- Race & Hispanic ethnicity
- Household income (4, 9, 18 categories)
- Metropolitan statistical area (urban/rural)
- Region (U.S. Census, 4 and 9 categories)
- State of residence
- Survey start (date/time)
- Survey end (date/time)
- Survey duration (minutes)
- Survey mode (online/phone)
- Device type used for online survey taking (desktop/tablet/smartphone)
Methodology
Our Teen Omnibus is conducted in English and online only. Survey items on sensitive topics (see above) are not eligible for AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus. Such items are eligible for standalone custom surveys using AmeriSpeak Teen.
If NORC cannot complete 1,000 interviews using the AmeriSpeak Teen Panel, NORC will supplement with a non-probability, opt-in sample (obtaining study-specific consent from parents/legal guardians) until reaching 1,000 total completed interviews. NORC will use our proprietary TrueNorth calibration weighting for sample non-coverage and bias correction.
Institutional Review Board
NORC’s IRB has approved all procedures for recruiting and consenting teens into AmeriSpeak Teen, and for contacting AmeriSpeak Teen panelists directly to take surveys with non-sensitive topics.
Prior to fielding, our IRB reviews and approves each Teen Omnibus questionnaire.
If you have your own IRB (e.g., some universities or hospitals), make sure to provide your IRB’s approval documentation by the questionnaire deadline. This helps us avoid delays in fielding.
