TV exposure and food consumption patterns–evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

Worldwide, children and adolescents are increasingly exposed to media. In particular, television (TV) continues to dominate the media landscape despite the emergence of digital media. On average, 89% of adolescents and 79% of children report watching more than one hour of television per day, although there are substantial differences among countries (Braithwaite et al., 2013). The increasing number of TV programs for children is one reason for the prominent role of television in many children's lives (Kunkel et al., 2004). Owing to this development, public health researchers have analyzed the impact of television exposure on children's short-term development. 1 Studying the specific impact on children is important because they are increasingly understood as an independent consumer group and becoming subject to more tailored marketing strategies (Kunkel et al., 2004). Moreover, children are more susceptible to marketing messages because the parts of the brain that are responsible for regulatory mechanisms are not fully developed until late adolescence (Pechmann et al., 2005). Experimental evidence suggests that even 10 year-old children still struggle to understand the persuasive intention of advertising (Oates et al., 2002).Against this backdrop, one important question is whether television can alter children's food preferences in the long run. This paper shows that exposure to TV during childhood can affect food consumption in adulthood. In particular,