Twenty-five years of consumer socialization research have yielded an impressive set of findings. The purpose of our article is to review these findings and assess what we know about children's development as consumers. Our focus is on the developmental sequence characterizing the growth of consumer knowledge, skills, and values as children mature throughout childhood and adolescence. In doing so, we present a conceptual framework for understanding consumer socialization as a series of stages, with transitions between stages occurring as children grow older and mature in cognitive and social terms. We then review empirical findings illustrating these stages, including children's knowledge of products, brands, advertising, shopping, pricing, decision-making strategies, parental influence strategies, and consumption motives and values. Based on the evidence reviewed, implications are drawn for future theoretical and empirical development in the field of consumer socialization.

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Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research

While studies of communication effects on consumer behavior of the young have focused mainly on the effects of mass media (advertising in particular), little research has examined the effects of interpersonal communication. One finds relatively little theoretical and empirical work regarding the role of interpersonal communication in the development of consumer behavior of young people. This article deals with one important type of interpersonal communication—family communication. It conceptualizes the family communication processes and effects, reviews literature regarding the role of family communication in consumer learning of children and adolescents, develops a set of propositions on the basis of theory research, and suggests directions for future research.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2489216.pdf

The Role of Family Communication in Consumer Socialization of Children and Adolescents

Twenty-seven financial items were included in a questionnaire and 182 parents responded to the age they felt is most appropriate to share that family financial information or be involved in the financial activity. The most consensus was among parents as to what the very young are ready to learn and that children approximately 18 are ready for credit experiences. The items related to knowing about family income, savings, and indebtedness had the highest percentage of parents believing children should never know about that information. Most of the parents believed that children ages 12 to 14 and 15 to 17 were ready to be involved in family finances. However, most parents thought children were not ready to establish their own financial credibility or a credit history and build assets until 18 years of age or older.

Parental perceptions of children's financial socialization

We present a conceptual as well as empirical analysis showing that 11–12-year-old children, relative to adults, evaluate brand extensions by relying more on surface cues (e.g., brand name characteristics used to launch the extension) and less on deep cues (e.g., category similarity between the parent brand and the extension category). In experiment 1, children gave equivalent evaluations of brand extensions regardless of category similarity (e.g., Coca-Cola extending to iced tea vs. toffee), whereas adults rated near extensions (e.g., iced tea) more favorably than far extensions (e.g., toffee). In experiment 2, children evaluated near extensions more favorably than far extensions when they were cued to make similarity judgments prior to evaluation but rated near and far extensions equivalently when they were not cued prior to evaluation. In experiment 3, children based their evaluations on the extension name's linguistic characteristics regardless of category similarity, whereas adults based their evaluations on category similarity regardless of name characteristics. Children rated extensions with a rhyming name (e.g., “Coca-Cola Gola” iced tea; “Wrigley's Higley” toffee) more positively than extensions with a nonrhyming name (e.g., “Coca-Cola Higley” iced tea; “Wrigley's Gola” toffee), whereas adults rated them similarly. Theoretical implications on branding and categorization research as well as managerial implications are discussed.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/338207

“Deep” and “Surface” Cues: Brand Extension Evaluations by Children and Adults

Children's influences on in-store purchases

This study investigated use of selected consumer skills by children of two ages. A simulated market was developed and used to determine each participating child's level of consumer competence. It was found that (a) children learn consumer skills by being given opportunities to participate in consumer decision-making and sharing family responsibilities, (b) too little or excessive time spent in market search lessened the chance of obtaining a best buy, and (c) although children can and do learn to be consumers early, some skills depend upon maturation and use of education.

Josephine Turner

Papers

Development and Validation of a Simulated Market to Test Children for Selected Consumer Skills