$110 one-time · Mercor · Task based
A U.S. parent of a child aged 9-13 who participates in a Stanford-Bocconi study tracking how digital devices affect youth and family well-being over eight weeks.
What you would do
- Respond thoughtfully to initial and follow-up surveys covering your family's technology habits, parental oversight approaches, and conflicts around device use
- Install a parental-control application on your child's phone and confirm it remains active throughout the study duration
- Reply to text-message prompts at scheduled intervals with brief observations about device use patterns and family interactions.
- Support your child in completing their own survey responses and check-ins, ensuring they feel comfortable and understand the study without influencing their answers
- Track and report honestly on family digital dynamics, including difficult topics like arguments about screen time or your concerns about online safety
Who they want
- Reside permanently in the United States with a parent or guardian status for a child aged 9-13
- Your selected child must own and actively use their own smartphone before the study begins
- Willingness to install a parental-monitoring app and keep it operational on the child's device for the full eight weeks
- Commitment to complete surveys and respond to text check-ins as scheduled, typically requiring 5-10 minutes per week
- Honest, reflective approach to reporting on family dynamics and technology use, including uncomfortable truths about device habits
Main skills
What the interview asks about
1.App installation and tech troubleshooting
If you cannot install the monitoring app or it crashes during the study, the research data for your family is compromised.
For example: “You try to install the app on your child's older Android phone, but it won't download from the Play Store. The study begins in three days. What do you do?”
2.Honest reporting over socially acceptable answers
Parents often underestimate their own screen time or overstate how much they restrict their children's devices; research validity depends on accurate reporting.
For example: “One survey asks how many hours per day your child uses their phone. The honest answer is five hours. Do you report that, or adjust it to seem more reasonable?”
3.Child participation without coercion
If you pressure your child to answer surveys a certain way or misrepresent their experiences, the study data about youth well-being becomes unreliable.
For example: “Your child finds the check-in texts annoying and wants to stop. How do you handle this, and what does the study protocol expect from you?”
4.Eight-week commitment discipline
Missed surveys or inconsistent responses weaken the longitudinal data; researchers need to know you'll follow through when motivation wanes.
For example: “Halfway through the study, you're busier and your notifications pile up. What keeps you engaged enough to complete responses on time?”
How to prepare
- Review your family's current technology habits: how much time each member spends on devices, what rules you have around screen time, and conflicts about device use.
- Discuss the study with your child in age-appropriate language, explaining what surveys involve and what the monitoring app does, to gauge their comfort level.
- Identify potential technical obstacles-phone model, operating system version, app compatibility-and have a backup plan if the initial phone cannot run the app.
- Set a calendar reminder for the study's start date and planned check-in schedule so you can anticipate when notifications will arrive.
The facts
- Pay
- $110 one-time
- Hours
- Task based
- Where
- Remote · Remote (United States)
- Open to
- USA
- Field
- Life, Physical, and Social Science
- Project name
- Stanford Research
- Posted
- 7/28/2026
- Places left
- 8064
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