Gen Z Research: Understanding Today’s Teens and Young Adults

Touchstone Research helps brands understand Gen Z through research that captures how teens and young adults think, communicate, and make decisions. From media habits and digital behavior to brand preferences and cultural values, our Gen Z research provides the insights you need to reach one of today’s most influential generations.

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Gen Z Research That Reflects Real Teen and Young Adult Behaviors

Gen Z is shaping culture, commerce, technology, and entertainment faster than any generation before them. Their expectations, values, and digital behavior differ sharply from Millennials and Gen Alpha, making it essential for brands to understand what drives their choices. Touchstone Research helps organizations stay ahead with insights grounded in real Gen Z voices, real behaviors, and real-world context.

Gen Z Research That Meets Teens Where They Are Today

Proven Gen Z Expertise: Decades of experience studying teens and young adults across media, tech, retail, entertainment, education, and consumer brands.
Teen-Centered Methods: Research approaches designed around how Gen Z communicates, interacts, and shares feedback across devices and platforms.
Authentic Youth Participation: High-quality recruitment and validation processes to ensure accurate, trustworthy perspectives from real teens and young adults.
Global Research Capabilities: Studies conducted across more than 60 markets with culturally relevant, multilingual support.
Digital Behavior Insight: Deep understanding of Gen Z’s social, mobile, and streaming habits to inform both product and content strategy.
Trusted by Leading Brands: A long-term research partner for organizations shaping culture and building products for the next generation.

Gen Z Market Research Services

Touchstone Research offers full-service Gen Z market research solutions that help brands understand teen behaviors, attitudes, preferences, and digital experiences. Whether you need in-depth qualitative insights, large-scale teen surveys, or continuous feedback from engaged Gen Z insight communities, our services are designed to deliver accurate, culturally grounded insights that drive smarter decisions.

Qualitative Research

Explore the motivations, values, and behaviors of teens through focus groups, IDIs, diary studies, and teen-friendly ethnographies. We help you uncover the “why” behind Gen Z decision-making.

Learn More About Our Qualitative Research Services

Gen Z Quantitative Research

Gain reliable, data-backed insights with mobile-first surveys, trackers, segmentation, and statistical modeling tailored for Gen Z communication styles and attention spans.

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Recruitment & Fieldwork

Reach authentic teen audiences through rigorous screening, parental verification for minors, and in-house recruitment that ensures high-quality participation for all study types.

Learn More About Our Qualitative Research Recruitment Services

Gen Z Market Research Recruitment & Fieldwork

UX Research

Understand how Gen Z navigates digital products, apps, platforms, and experiences. From usability testing to journey mapping, we uncover friction points and identify opportunities to enhance engagement and usability.

Learn More About Our UX Research Services

Insight Communities & Online Panels

Build custom Gen Z communities for ongoing input on concepts, trends, content, and creative. Ideal for agile testing and fast-turn insights directly from engaged teens.

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Gen Z Insight Communities & Online Panels

Dial Testing

Collect moment-to-moment emotional and engagement reactions to media, campaigns, and content. Dial Tester reveals which moments resonate, where attention drops, and why.

Learn More About Dial Testing

Gen Z Secure Content Testing

Protect pre-release creative, prototypes, and digital content with advanced watermarking and controlled access — ideal for confidential Gen Z-facing assets.

Learn More About Secure Content Testing

Gen Z Research Case Studies

Gen Z UX Research for an AI Feature

Gen Z UX research uncovered how teens evaluate trust, usefulness, and transparency when interacting with AI-driven features. Findings helped the product team refine design flows and align the experience with Gen Z expectations before launch.

Read the case study: Gen Z UX Research for an AI Feature

Industries We Support with Gen Z Consumer Insights

Gen Z shapes trends across nearly every major category. Touchstone Research helps organizations understand teen and young adult motivations, behaviors, and expectations to support stronger product, content, and brand decisions. Our insights reveal what matters to this generation so you can stay relevant in a fast-moving landscape.

Technology

Media & Entertainment

Youth & Family

Education

Consumer Packaged Goods

Sports, Wellness, & Fitness

Food, Beverage, & Restaurant

Retail & Apparel

Healthcare

Toys & Gaming

Gen Z Audiences We Reach Through Market Research

Touchstone Research connects brands with the full range of Gen Z voices, capturing the diversity, creativity, and cultural influence that define this generation. We recruit engaged teens and young adults across interests, identities, and digital behaviors to ensure your insights reflect the complexity of today’s youth market.

High School Students
Tech-Savvy Teens
Social Media Enthusiasts
Gaming Aficionados
Movie & TV Buffs
Loyal Consumers of Teen Brands
Youth Trendsetters
Creative Young Minds & Aspiring Artists
Young Influencers & Content Creators

Eco-Conscious & Socially Aware Teens
STEM Enthusiasts
Athletes & Sports Fans
Music Lovers & Concert-Goers
Digital Natives
Fashion-Forward Teens
Diverse Cultural Backgrounds
And many more!

Gen Z Research FAQs

What is Gen Z research?

Gen Z research explores the attitudes, behaviors, preferences, and decision-making patterns of teens and young adults. It helps brands understand what influences their choices across media, products, technology, culture, and consumer trends.

How is researching Gen Z different from other generations?

Gen Z expects transparency, relevance, and digital fluency. Research with this group requires mobile-first methods, fast-paced activities, creative engagement, and an environment where teens feel comfortable sharing honest perspectives.

What methods do you use in your research on Generation Z?

We use qualitative and quantitative methods tailored to teen communication styles, including mobile surveys, video interviews, moderated groups, ethnography, online panels & insight communities, UX testing, and real-time feedback tools such as Dial Tester.

Can you recruit teens for qualitative and quantitative research?

Yes. We recruit teens and young adults through rigorous screening and multi-step validation. For participants under 18, we follow strict privacy procedures and require verified parental consent.

Do you conduct international Gen Z research?

Yes. We support global studies in more than 60 markets, using localized recruitment, translation support, and cultural adaptation to ensure accuracy and relevance across regions.

What types of industries benefit from Gen Z consumer insights?

We support brands across technology, media and entertainment, education, retail, CPG, gaming, fashion, food and beverage, nonprofits, and more. Any organization seeking to understand the next generation can benefit from Gen Z research.

How do you ensure participant privacy and data protection?

All Gen Z research follows strict youth privacy standards, including parental consent for minors, secure data handling, and industry-leading compliance protocols aligned with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA.

Can you test Gen Z reactions to content, products, and digital experiences?

Absolutely. We conduct usability testing, concept evaluation, prototype testing, media testing, and campaign validation—capturing what resonates with Gen Z and why.

Do you offer ongoing or community-based Gen Z research options?

Yes. We build custom Gen Z insight communities and online panels, allowing brands to gather continuous feedback from teens and young adults over time.

Looking for research with younger audiences beyond Gen Z? Explore our youth and family market research services

Trusted Gen Z Research Partner for Global Brands

What Our Clients Say About Our Gen Z Research

Touchstone Research has been an invaluable partner in our product design process, helping us reach a hard-to-reach population (K-12) students, and upholding the highest standards around safety and accessibility for participants. … Having worked with other research panels in the past, Touchstone has the best customer service, and panel quality. We plan to keep working together for the foreseeable future!

UX Researcher
Ed-Tech Company
With the knowledge gained in our user research efforts with Touchstone, we have been empowered to make more data informed decisions about our product by keeping user behavior and motivation at the forefront of our work. Along with being flexible in our partnership model, Touchstone has supported this effort by offering a dedicated team that continues to learn about our unique product and business needs and provides quick turnaround for recruitment, facilitation, and topline reports.

Senior Digital Product Manager
Ed-tech Company
I got the opportunity to work with the members Touchstone Research through another company. I was so impressed with them that they were the first group that I called when I got my own research project. Not only did they respond immediately, and give me a fair price for the work I requested, but they helped me along the way and were in constant contact. They found children from different regions from families of different interests. They also set up all of the online sessions, got the participants set up and ready to go so that all I had to worry about was myself! I just didn’t realize that this amount of support was possible, and now that I have that, I can never go back. For anyone who is unsure about doing online research, you don’t have anything to think about with Touchstone. They will take care of you and your project will go smoothly every time from start to finish.

Educational Consultant
Media & Entertainment Company