TY - JOUR
T1 - A Humanistic approach to understanding child consumer socialization in US homes
AU - Atkinson, Lucy
AU - Nelson, Michelle R.
AU - Rademacher, Mark A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - We present findings from a qualitative, multisite, multi-method, longitudinal study of parents and their preschool-aged children that explores the intersections of marketing influences in the home and in the larger outside world of children. Findings indicate that preschoolers represent complicated and nuanced "consumers in training" beyond predictions based on their "perceptual stage of development." Specifically, our data revealed interesting ways in which marketing and consumer culture can foster a number of pro-social consumer outcomes (e.g., charity, gift-giving, financial literacy). We also noted an emerging understanding by preschoolers of the social meanings of goods for identity construction and product evaluation. Finally, through a presentation of an idiographic case, we show how consumer socialization cannot be attributed to one factor such as media but is based on multiple and concurrent factors-parents, siblings, peers, and home environment-that act to moderate, mediate, and provide meaning for marketing messages.
AB - We present findings from a qualitative, multisite, multi-method, longitudinal study of parents and their preschool-aged children that explores the intersections of marketing influences in the home and in the larger outside world of children. Findings indicate that preschoolers represent complicated and nuanced "consumers in training" beyond predictions based on their "perceptual stage of development." Specifically, our data revealed interesting ways in which marketing and consumer culture can foster a number of pro-social consumer outcomes (e.g., charity, gift-giving, financial literacy). We also noted an emerging understanding by preschoolers of the social meanings of goods for identity construction and product evaluation. Finally, through a presentation of an idiographic case, we show how consumer socialization cannot be attributed to one factor such as media but is based on multiple and concurrent factors-parents, siblings, peers, and home environment-that act to moderate, mediate, and provide meaning for marketing messages.
KW - Consumer behavior
KW - Consumer socialization
KW - Ethnography
KW - Parental influence
KW - Preschool children
KW - Pro-social consumption
KW - Qualitative method
KW - Social identity of consumption
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U2 - 10.1080/17482798.2015.997106
DO - 10.1080/17482798.2015.997106
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983646613
SN - 1748-2798
VL - 9
SP - 95
EP - 112
JO - Journal of Children and Media
JF - Journal of Children and Media
IS - 1
ER -