«Individual adolescents actively incorporate the media into their lives in order to reduce developmental pressure with regard to youth-specific developmental tasks. Adolescents use the media to accelerate the accomplishment of their developmental goals»

 (Boehnke et al, 2002: 195)

«(...) radio is indeed an agent of youth development. In detail, our analyses showed that youth who express a strong desire to gain more autonomy (most importantly), better peer-group integration, more ability to cope with their own physical maturation, and an improved understanding of politics, use radio as a quasi-social means of mood management more than those age-mates who exhibit lower developmental aspirations. How can this be interpreted? Listening to the radio seems to give adolescents good feelings in a life-phase of uneasiness and at the same time seemingly has to offer clues on how to cope with youth-specific tasks. Through its parasocial interaction options, together with its mood management capacity, radio seems to offer youngsters an ideal medium to cope with the stresses of being an adolescent.» (199-200)