Family Audiences and Adult Audiences: Big Differences

In some ways, museum-going households are pretty predictable.  That is, family audiences behave in certain, broad ways, while adult audiences behave in different, again broad, ways.

A couple of weeks ago we shared some initial demographic results from our 2010 National Visitor Survey of over 40,000 museum-going households.  But to get a snapshot of results, we can focus in on just one number:  the percentage of respondents that are parents of minor children.  While not a perfect metric (and there will always, always be museums whose results vary widely), generally, the more parents that respond, the more we’ll see a certain set of behaviors, and the more adults without minor children that respond, the more we’ll see a different set of behaviors.

So what did we find out?

First, overall, 43% of respondents are parents of minor children.  But that 43% masks wide divisions among the four main genres of museums participating.  For those, we found parents are:

• 88% of children’s museum respondents
• 68% of science center respondents
• 26% of history museum and historic site respondents
• 18% of art museum respondents

Based on those numbers, we would expect respondents from children’s museums and science centers to generally behave in one manner, while respondents to history-based and art museums to behave in another manner.  And, by and large, they do. 

• Children’s Museums and Science Centers.  Overall, we found that these museums, with their significant response base among parents, see more repeat visitors.  Parents tend to be more negative almost across the board when asked about programs, events, exhibits, etc.; they are significantly less likely to say their needs are met.  Respondents visit for family time, learning opportunities for children, for “fun,” or because their children love it.  They are also much more likely to visit zoos and aquariums and nature centers.  Less than half of respondents visit with a spouse or partner, and less than 10% visit museums alone.  They prefer hands-on experiences to anything else at museums.
  

• Art Museums and History-Based Museums.  In contrast, these museums, while generally not having quite so much repeat visitation, have visitors that are much more positive about the museum.   Indeed, they are almost 50% more likely to say their needs are met, and they are nearly two times more likely to say the museum helps bring the community together.  They visit out of personal curiosity and interest in the subject matter.  They are much more likely to visit a wider variety of museums.  They are significantly more likely to visit with a spouse or partner, with friends, or even alone.  Finally, they prefer to visit museums on their own (that is, without heavy staff facilitation), but are also more likely to want object-based experiences.

When we step back at look at these overall trends, we see that many parents tend to visit museums for extrinsic reasons, that is, for the enrichment and enjoyment of their children, while adults without minor children in their lives tend to visit for intrinsic reasons, such as their own curiosity and interest in the subject matter.  Those reasons end up setting the tone for the actual museum visit as they bring very different expectations, and yield very different levels of engagement.  Important differences that we’ll be exploring in more detail in the coming months.

Finally, some quirks in the data.  Of course these respondent pools are not monolithic.  There are some interesting twists in our results, including:

• Grandmothers of minor children are “swing voters” in that their responses to children’s museums and science centers tend to mirror those of parents, while grandmothers responding to history-based or art museums tend to mirror those of adults without minor children in their lives.  Grandfathers generally mirror the responses of adults without children all the time.
• Generation Y adults in their 20s, regardless of their parental status, are significantly more likely to say museums are “fun.”
• Art museum respondents visit almost as often as science center respondents.  Children’s museum respondents visit the most, while history-based museum respondents the least.
• Natural history museums appear to excel at engaging audiences of all ages, both families and adults.
• For some reasons, respondents from history-based museums do not visit botanical gardens or arboretums as much as art museum respondents.
  
• And, of course, some parents exhibit strong intrinsic motivations for visiting museums, as well as extrinsic motivations for their children (including nurturing intrinsic motivations for life-long learning within their children).  These parents, and how moms and dads differ in this, will be explored in tremendous detail in future posts.

In the next few weeks we’ll be focusing in on some of the results by museum genre in more detail before we change our viewing lens to respondents from the overall pool, examining them by their different life stages, their core motivations, and their childhood museum experiences. 

What do you think?  To share, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)

Comments

[Alli]

Interesting data. It makes sense that parents visit children's museums and science centers for extrinsic reasons, for their children. But, I'm curious as to whether the children are visiting museums for intrinsic reasons (they have fun, they love learning, they enjoy family time and therefore ask for repeat museum visits) or extrinsic reasons (their parents are taking them based on the museum's perceived value)?

Is there any research based on what the children have to say about museums and whether that influences family museum visits?

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Good question, Alli. We have not done any large-scale studies with children 10 or under, so it is hard to say beyond simple observation.

In this study, however, we did capture over 28,000 childhood museum memories from respondents, and we are still in the process of going through those memories to look for patterns. While this research may not end up directly answering your question, it may still address some of your thoughts.

[Karen Bellnier]

Now.. as a 'parent of a minor' I object to being labeled cranky. =) I do think that one of the challenges of serving a 'family' audience is that the developmental needs of children vary so widely, that unless you focus your museums on a smaller age range (and some do) there will generally be large portions of any sci ctr/ children's museum's exhibits and programs that do not need the developmental needs of the child(ren) going.

On top of that, there is often less topical focus, so the wide range of content also makes it difficult to know what you are going to get.

Maintenance is also often a challenge with many exhibit items taking a beating and becoming 'not in working order' - and it only takes a few to give the perception that 'nothing works'.

Finally, many museums are still targeting traditional business hours and for us "cranky, not stay-at-home" folks, there are sometimes a paucity of options.

Do I sound cranky yet? =)

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Now, Karen, did I say "cranky?"

Yes, your comments are true - there are a wider variety of needs for family audiences. That being said, however, when we pick apart the core motivations of moms and then examine them for engagement levels, satisfaction levels, etc., we do find a wide variety, with some moms extremely engaged . . . and some just, well, I will say it. They are crabby. (I'll assume you don't fall into that category!)

We'll be releasing a good chunk of the mom data at the AAM meeting in a couple of weeks, and then via this blog. Stay tuned.