Wearing clothes with prestigious brand names seems to be very important for adolescents. This phenomenon was studied in the context of consumer socialization by examining the influence of three socialization agents, namely parents, peers and TV, on the development of French Canadian adolescents’ brand sensitivity and their relative importance. Controlling for socio‐economic variables, multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for boys and for girls. For both genders, brand sensitivity is related to peer influence. Girls’ brand sensitivity is related to the importance fathers give to clothing brands. TV exposure is not related to adolescents’ brand sensitivity. For boys and girls, peers represent the most important predictor of this consumer socialization. The results are discussed in the light of social and economic pressures and family relationships.

Using Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovation, this paper reports the results of a study that had two objectives: the first objective was to compare the number of male and female adolescents in each of Rogers' five categories of consumer adopters. The second, was to verify if there were differences among the five distinct categories of adopters with respect to brand sensitivity. Results show that, as with other market segments, there are more female than male adolescents in the categories``innovators'' and``early adopters'', and more male than female adolescents in the categories``late majority'' and``laggards''. Further, it appears that brand sensitivity is an increasing function of fashion``adoptiveness'' among adolescents.

This research aimed to study young adults’ use of and knowledge of credit. A large representative sample of Quebec young adults aged 18–29 years participated in a telephone survey. Results reveal that their use of credit has increased remarkably over the last decade. The mean score on the credit knowledge scale used in this study is 49.4% for the entire group. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis show that credit knowledge is positively related to personal income, number of debts, amount of total debt, number of credit cards and favourable attitude towards credit and debts. Young adults reporting either personal experience or family and relatives as their main source of learning about personal finances were found to have a lower level of knowledge about credit in general than those reporting having learned of this subject from courses, the media or financial counsellors. The learning of basic knowledge about credit and personal finances, with stress on the sensible use of credit, should be part of the educational agenda for young consumers.

In order to palliate the access problem to effective contraceptive methods in Quebec, Canada, as well as to legitimate nurses' practices in family planning, a collaborative agreement was developed that allow nurses, in conjunction with pharmacists, to give hormonal contraceptives to healthy women of reproductive age for a 6 month period. Training in hormonal contraception was offered to targeted nurses before they could begin this practice. A questionnaire, based on Rogers's theory of diffusion of innovations, was elaborated and validated to specifically evaluate this phenomenon. Preliminary results show that the translation of training into practice might be suboptimal. The validated questionnaire can now be used to fully understand the set of factors influencing this new practice.

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Connaissances, attitude et pratiques reliées au crédit de même que nature et niveau des dettes sont les aspects qui ont été évalués chez des Québécois de 18 à 29 ans. Les résultats indiquent que ces jeunes utilisent les produits de crédit à un niveau relativement élevé, mais connaissent peu leur fonctionnement. Leur attitude face au crédit et à l’endettement est partagée et une majorité d’entre eux prétend avoir certaines pratiques socialement désirables. Plus de 75% des jeunes ont au moins une dette, la plus répandue étant la dette d’étude, suivie du solde impayé sur une carte de crédit. L’étude permet de confirmer que le niveau d’utilisation du crédit et le nombre de jeunes ayant des dettes a cru considérablement depuis 10 ans.This paper deals with an evaluation of the attitudes and practices of Quebecers aged between 18 and 29 with regard to credit and the nature and level of their debt burden. Survey results indicate that their use of credit instruments is fairly high, but their knowledge of how they function is slender. They have diverse attitudes to credit and indebtedness, and a majority of them lay claim to socially positive practices. Over 75% of those surveyed have at least one debt, most usually their student loan, followed by the unpaid balance of a credit card. This study confirms that the use of credit and the number of young people with debts have increased considerably over the past ten years

In 2007, a task-shifting strategy through which a nurse, in collaboration with a community pharmacist, could start a healthy woman on hormonal contraception without a medical consultation was implemented in the province of Quebec. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with the 1) implementation of this new practice by nurses, 2) delay of implementation and 3) intensity of the practice. A validated questionnaire based on Rogers' theory of the diffusion of innovation was sent by postal mail or internet to all nurses that had successfully completed training in hormonal contraception since 2007, were registered at the College of nurses of Quebec and currently worked as nurses. The questionnaire was completed by 745 nurses between November 2011 and March 2012 for a response rate of 26.6%. Results show that implementation of this new nursing practice was more successful when nurses had a high degree of cosmopoliteness, they perceived the new practice as simple, they worked in youth clinics and if health organizations where they worked were open to innovation, had low centralized decision-making and organizational slack. Various attributes of innovation, diffusion networks and characteristics of the organizations also explained intensity of the new practice. The findings suggest new avenues to simplify and scale up this strategy for use in other health organizations.