Children’s influence on parental purchase decisions: Scale development and validation

Abstract

The article concentrates on the delineation between children’s participation and children’s influence in a family purchasing process. Lack of clarity between the two concepts results in misconceptions, inconsistencies, or even conflicting findings across studies. This study addresses the issue from theoretical and methodological perspectives. Taking into account the importance of children’s participation as a necessary, but not sufficient, pre-condition to demonstrate the influence, the study delineates the two variables and specifies the differences between them. This is supported with the development and validation of an alternative scale that directly measures children’s influence. Further analysis allows justification of the new scale and shows a theoretically supported difference between the measurements of children’s participation and influence in family-buying decision. The fact of making clear distinction between participation and influence leads to the enriched theoretical and methodological knowledge in the field and provides important managerial implications both in the family purchasing context and in other types of group interactions.

The Climate Crisis, Climate Anxiety and Children's Rights: A Psychological Perspective on Human Health and Security

“…12) affirms that children who are capable of forming their own opinions have a right to freely express their views in all matters affecting them, in so much as the views of the child are given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. Consider that children tend to become brand-aware from the age of nine to eleven years 39 and children's influence on parental purchase decisions is well documented, 40 whether it be positive or negative. The UN Convention acknowledges the family as the fundamental unit of society and not only advocates for the role of parents as the primary caregivers with responsibility for the upbringing of their children but obliges governments to help parents fulfil their essential role.…”

NEET youth: Consumer behavior in the new reality

“…Большое влияние родителей на потребительские ориентации детей связаны с их приоритетом в денежных тратах (кто зарабатывает деньги, тот и определяет, на что их тратить), что объясняет способность родителей отвергать потребительские предложения подростков [25]. Другой закономерностью является усиление влияния подростков на семейные покупки по мере их взросления: с возрастом подростки набирают потребительский опыт, становятся экспертами в определенной группе товаров и услуг и, тем самым, могут влиять на выбор родителей [22].…”

Unhealthy food advertising to South African children through television: a content analysis.

“…Children are often in the presence of their parents when purchase decisions are made and as a result, parents tend to share information regarding the description or details of specific products (Dikcius, Urbonavicius, Pakalniskiene & Pikturniene 2019). Over the past decade, children have begun to frequently assist parents in stores, serve as information collectors, price checkers and are capable of selecting products for family use or consumption on a regular basis (Dikcius et al, 2019).…”

“…It can be said that parents and children seek inter-family peace and happiness with the aim of promoting inclusivity within family decision-making (Kumalasari, Karremans & Dijksterhuis, 2020). Therefore, parents tend to attain trust within the family through compromise, which generally results in a satisfactory ending for all family members involved (Dikcius et al, 2019). With regard to the purchasing of sugary snacks, beverages and fast food, parents aim to achieve limited levels of dissonance but are often persuaded into purchasing unhealthy foods (Dikcius et al, 2019).…”

“…Therefore, parents tend to attain trust within the family through compromise, which generally results in a satisfactory ending for all family members involved (Dikcius et al, 2019). With regard to the purchasing of sugary snacks, beverages and fast food, parents aim to achieve limited levels of dissonance but are often persuaded into purchasing unhealthy foods (Dikcius et al, 2019). However, the role of children as consumers within a household may vary based on their socio-economic background (French, Tangney, Crane, Wang & Appelhans, 2019).…”