Observing parent-child purchase related interactions in US-based retail environments: replication and extension

2021

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Purpose This study aims to examine what parents from across the USA know about online advertising/marketing tactics directed at children, their familiarity with these tactics and what they believe about the appropriateness of using these promotional methods to target children. Design/methodology/approach The online survey company Qualtrics was used to collect data from 500 parents in the USA. Parents had to have at least one child between the ages of 5 and 14 to participate. To ensure socio-economic diversity, half of the participants had an associate degree or more of schooling while the other half of participants had some college or less. Participants were given vignettes describing 11 different online advertising/marketing tactics and were asked how familiar they were with each tactic, whether they could identify the tactic by name, at what age they believed their child could understand the promotional intent of the tactic and the age that they thought it was ethical to use this tactic with children. Findings The results revealed that parents were only moderately familiar with many of these advertising/marketing tactics and had difficulty identifying most of them by name. In addition, parents reported that, on average, most 11-year-old children would understand the purpose of these marketing approaches and that it was ethical to target children with them. Originality/value The results of this exploratory study offer researchers some key insights into how American parents perceive online advertising that targets children.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental awareness of new online advertising techniques targeting children: an exploratory study of American parents

2021

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“…If a respondent had more than one child in the age range, participants were asked to select the child with the most recent birthday. Considering more time spent on childrearing than fathers and high involvement of mothers in child consumer socialization (Krcmar et al , 2017; American time use survey – 2021 Results, 2021), the current study limited the sample to mothers only.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering more time spent on childrearing than fathers and high involvement of mothers in child consumer socialization (Krcmar et al, 2017; American time use survey -2021 Results, 2021), the current study limited the sample to mothers only.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ mental state communication and children’s consumer behavior in the USA

2023

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Purpose Previous research has shown that children’s ability to understand mental states is related to their consumer development, yet it is unknown how parents can aid in this process. One possible way that parents may help is using mental state communication (i.e. communication that focuses on beliefs/intention to explain behavior by others). This study aims to examine whether this kind of communication is linked to children’s purchase requests through two potential mediators – active mediation and child socio-cognitive skills (i.e. Theory of Mind). Design/methodology/approach This study used a survey of 420 American mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 7. Respondents were given 12 scenarios describing typical parent–child interactions focused on discussing mental states and were asked how they would respond. Then, respondents were asked about demographic information, parenting style, mediation style, child socio-cognitive skills and child purchase requests. Findings Results showed both a direct and indirect negative association between parents’ mental state communication and children’s purchase requests via active advertising mediation. Contrary to expectations, active mediation was negatively associated with mental state communication and positively linked to child purchase requests. Children’s socio-cognitive skills were not associated with either parents’ mental state communication or children’s purchase requests. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study that has examined mental state communication of parents as a potential predictor in shaping children’s purchase requests and found that it was negatively associated with it.

“…Several studies have examined the effect of media on parent-child consumer interactions (see McDermott et al 2006 for a review). For example, Buijzen and Valkenburg (2008) found that child age and television viewing influenced the frequency and types of influence attempts used by children, and this has been supported by other research (see Krcmar et al 2017). Whereas these studies do provide a link between children's exposure to advertising and problematic parent-child exchanges in a shopping environment, they did not examine the ways in which parent communication might influence the trajectory of these interactions nor did they explore parental emotional responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Buijzen and Valkenburg 2003b) or surveys combined with parent-child observations (e.g. Krcmar et al 2017).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Take a deep breath: the effects of television exposure and family communication on family shopping-related stress

Krcmar

International Journal of Advertising

et al. 2020

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Parents of children (age 2-12) participated in this study examining the influence of children's television exposure on parent-reported child-initiated purchase requests and coercive behaviors and their subsequent effect on overall parental stress, a factor associated with reduced well-being. Using a general family systems framework, and Family Communication Patterns (FCP), we also examined how these consumer oriented communication patterns could help or harm family interactions and ultimately, parent stress. Results indicated that increased child television exposure was associated with increased child-purchase initiations and consumer related coercive behavior. Additionally, child coercive behavior and child purchase initiation was then associated with increased parental stress, which has a well-documented impact on both physical and emotional parent well-being. Lastly, increased collaborative communication had an exacerbating direct effect on parent stress; whereas, parents who engaged in more control oriented and advertising communication had children who were more likely to ask for more products and exhibit more coercive behaviors. Finally, the link between television exposure and coercive behavior was weaker in homes where parents engaged in more advertising focused communication. Thus, advertising can directly and indirectly influence parent stress; however, effects can be mitigated through constructive parental communication with children.