Young consumer identity in a restrictive school environment — Addictive substances, symbolic goods and consumer skills

Abstract

For young people, consuming is an act of constructing identity, where goods, services and styles are important parts of signifying who they are. Our study focuses on young people who are living in restrictive environments, such as special boarding schools. They have been placed there because of social and educational reasons. Although aspects of education and health of young people in out-of-home care have been studied, their consumer behavior has been given limited attention. Our study shows that young people openly report the use of addictive substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs as well as gambling. They also build up their consumer identity by appreciating symbolic goods, such as clothes, music and sport. Spending on expensive clothes serves their favorable self-image. The fact that the schools provide all their essential needs makes the learning of consumer skills challenging although the schools reinforce management skills such as planning the use of money. Young people struggle with their identities at the borders of their school environment (i.e. education, school discipline) and the temptations of consumer culture. Even if they manage to break their damaging life path, they will be consumers throughout their life, meaning their consumer skills need to be strengthened by special education.

Materialism, conspicuous consumption, and brand engagement in self-concept: a study of teenagers

“…Our study shows that the more materialistic teenagers are, the more likely it is that they will construct themselves through brands. Choosing or using specific brands can be interpreted as shaping identity ( Autio et al, 2016 ). Young people are looking for a way to build their identity, and brands can play a large part in this ( Sirchuk, 2012 ).…”

“…One of the most important developmental tasks for adolescents is shaping their own identity, so it can be expected that young consumers who want to develop their self-esteem will become more involved with brands (Hsiech & Chang, 2016), because when adolescents choose certain brands they try to express their identity ( Autio et al, 2016 ). Brands help to develop the self-concept in young consumers and social groups ( Eisend & Stokburger-Sauer, 2013 ).…”

Drugs, brands and consumer culture: the sign-value of the products sold on the darknet marketplaces

“…Thus, consumers do not make choices based solely on the products' utilities, but also on their symbolic meaning (Elliott and Wattanasuwan, 2017). People try to symbolize particular group-identities by consuming according to the norms of specific groups (Autio et al, 2016). Moreover, through socialization, consumers not only learn to agree on shared meanings of some of the symbols available to them, but they also develop individual symbolic interpretations of their own (Elliott and Wattanasuwan, 2017).…”

Fluidity of places in everyday food consumption: Introducing snackscapes

“…According to Neely, Walton, and Stephens () young consumers use food actively to foster connections, show their agency and manage relationships. Autio, Lähteenmaa, Holmberg, and Kujala () note that for young people snacks serve as a tool for identity maintenance in certain social environments such as boarding schools. Furthermore, consumption of snack products plays a distinctive role in shared social rituals such as joint gameplay sessions where food manifests itself as a vehicle of identity, community, imaginative escape, gustatory rebellion and prolonged pleasure (Cronin & McCarthy, ).…”