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Describes research on the processes and outcomes of consumer socialisation; it investigates the importance of the family as the main socialisation agent for young children. Shows how parents influence child behaviour directly through instruction in consumer skills, indirectly as models of consumer behaviour, and by supervision of the child’s consumer opportunities; also by influencing cognitive abilities, motivating the child to use its cognitive abilities in consumer situations, and teaching consumer skills which are unrelated to cognitive ability. Relates changes in US family demographic patterns to children as consumers: more single‐parent families and working mothers may mean less contact and socialisation of children by parents, while greater ethnic diversity and mixed‐race families affects the way that children are socialised. Test four hypotheses: that parents of younger children engage in less direct instruction of consumer behaviours than parents of older children; that parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing with daughters than with sons; that more highly educated parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing than do parents with lower levels of education; and that ethnicity is a factor in parental consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing. Discusses the results of the survey questionnaire used for this US study of parents with children between two and eight years old; the results roughly confirm the first three of these four hypotheses.

Looks at the influence of television on children’s development as consumers, beginning with a literature review of consumer socialisation which establishes the importance of television as an influential model for children’s expressions of nonverbal behaviour and emotion. Explains the results of a survey of Malaysian schoolchildren which considers demographic variables such as gender and family income, and also personality traits, in relation to television viewing habits and consumer behaviour, including propensity to buy, time spent watching television, preferred type of programme etc. Discusses the results, which indicate the importance of family income as a predictor of differences in socialisation; gender is less influential, and of the six personality traits studied, the aggressive ‐ passive is the most influential on socialisation.

The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the process by which child consumers form relationships with brands. Specifically, the authors attempt to understand how child consumers conceptualize brands, why and how they decide to engage in relationships with brands and why they decide to breakup with brands though sometimes reconcile with them.

A mixed methodology was followed in this research. On the basis of an ethnographic approach, ten in-depth interviews were conducted among 8-12-year-old girls. Subsequently, a survey was completed by 122 children (boys and girls) to quantitatively examine the hypotheses formulated after the qualitative phase.

Findings from both the qualitative and quantitative studies highlight and confirm that children conceptualize brands according to visual branding components, signs and promotional activities. Furthermore, children make moral evaluations of brand behaviors and judge them as “good” or “bad”. More importantly, the authors propose two typologies: one for the reasons children decide to engage in a positive relationship and another for why children engage in a negative relationship with a brand. Additionally, the authors found that children report having an active or passive relationship role according to the characteristics of the brand relationship. Moreover, despite their young age, children report having broken up relationships with several brands; the reasons are categorized into positive and negative breakups. Finally, the authors found that positive breakups lead to more probable brand relationship reconciliation than negative breakups.

Despite a vast body of literature in the child consumer behavior field, there is scarce research regarding brand relationship phenomena. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research conducted with child consumers, addressing brand relationship formation, dissolution and reconciliation.

Reports research by the National Consumer Council (NCC) into UK children’s experiences and views as consumers; this survey of 10 to 19 year olds found that they form a new shopping generation which is more even consumer brand oriented than American counterparts but feels vulnerable and is critical of shops, companies and advertisers. Outlines the NCC recommendations for a children’s agenda: this covers stiffer fines for mis‐selling to children, monitoring of children’s wellbeing and life satisfaction, new Ofcom powers to enforce content labelling for entertainment, and ending abuses in Internet marketing to children.

This paper aims to revise an earlier version of a measure used to assess parent–child consumer-based communication to better capture how parents talk with their children about consumer matters.

Three separate studies were used to revise the measure. The first tested the original measure with parents and children in a supermarket to determine its predictive validity. The second utilized focus groups with parents to refine the measure. The final study sampled 503 parents via MTurk to test the performance of the revised measure regarding reliability and validity.

The first study found that the original scale did not perform well as it relates to predicting child consumer behavior. The second study used parents to describe in their own words how they talk to their own children about consumer issues. Using these insights, the final study used the redesigned scale and identified four dimensions to the consumer-related family communication patterns instrument: collaborative communication, control communication, product value and commercial truth. These four dimensions had good reliability, convergent validity and predictive validity.

With an updated measure of parent–child consumer-based communication that more closely matches how parents talk to their children about consumer issues, this measure can help researchers understand how children are socialized as consumers.

This study offers researchers a reliable and valid measure of parent–child consumer-based communication that can help inform future studies on this important topic.

This article seeks to make a critical contribution to the contemporary debate on the active role of children as consumers, exploring the different meanings children confer on consumer goods and spaces in retail settings.

A total of 60 children were unobtrusively observed in ten Italian apparel stores.

Children tend to subvert the stores' possible uses and symbolizations by actively re‐appropriating the meanings of products, promotional stimuli and spaces through play.

The analysis of children's lived experience of commercial spaces enables retailers to adjust the stores' environment to children's demands, recognising their role as active meaning creators.

The playful re‐appropriation of spaces, products and promotional stimuli emerged as a mechanism through which children learn to consume, reinforcing their knowledge and attitudes about retail settings, products and brands.

The quality of service delivery and maintenance of service performance relationships potentially depend on the extent to which service providers and service receivers share similar beliefs about a service and its delivery. Congruent expectations facilitate maintenance of service relationships, while disparate cognitions of expectations encumber and work toward terminating relationships (switching behavior). An empirical investigation of service switching in a child‐care setting reveals that highly educated child‐care consumers place more importance on the service encounter, and are more likely to engage in negative word‐of‐mouth about the service in the event of failure. However, in terms of service switching, the perceptions of child‐care providers are significantly different from those of consumers when attributing causes of switching, and examining post‐switching behavior. Provides practical implications for childcare providers, and service providers, in general.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review Scandinavian research on tweens as consumers from the years 1990‐2007.

In total, 35 studies were examined. Bronfenbrenner's bio‐ecological perspective was used to depict what parts of children's lives had been investigated. The theory highlights different contexts and analytical levels in children's environments that may influence their consumer behavior.

Scandinavian research has mainly focused on the individual child as a consumer and on interpersonal relations. The societal transformations that gradually changes the Scandinavian countries seem to have been less investigated. In addition, there is a lack of Scandinavian consumer research on interaction between different contexts, such as parents and school, which may influence children's consumer behavior.

This article has not critically reviewed each specific investigation in the field, but focused on the spread of aggregated Scandinavian research on tweens as consumers.

A more composite picture of consumption patterns among Scandinavian tweens is provided, which may be used as a guideline for educators, marketers and other professionals that interact with this age group.

Few attempts have been made to obtain a composite picture of Scandinavian consumer research on tweens. This question is of particular importance in times when the discourse of children's role in consumer society is changing, in order to understand the implications for future theoretical and empirical development in this dynamic field.

Explores the consumer behaviour patterns of urban Chinese children as a primary and an influence market. Examines, as primary customers, their income, spending and saving pattern. Finds that they have two different types of income, save over half of it, and spend the rest on snack items, and the largest portion on school‐related items. Analyses their influence on the spending behaviour of their parents and grandparents among 25 product categories and the results reveal that they influence around two‐thirds of parents' purchases. Also considers role of age and gender on children's consumer behaviour. Discusses some marketing implications.

By stepping outside of the consumer socialization model (Ward, 1974) which for many years has resembled a ‘body of verified truths’ when it comes to understanding the complex intimacy between young consumers’ identities and the marketplace, this research aims to offer a theoretical and empirical reconsideration of the tangible light and shade, indeterminacy and yet ambition in which these young adolescents’ consumption practices and social contexts are inextricably intertwined.

Five different data collection methods were employed; namely personal diaries, in-depth interviews (which were conducted at two separate intervals), accompanied shopping trips, e-collages and researcher diaries. Each method was chosen so as to fulfil a specific purpose and reflect a specific angle of repose on the lived experience and consumption practices of a liminar – those at the heart of marketing’s newest strategic boundary.

This chapter describes some of the constituent elements of metaconsumption; the proposed theorization of the liminars’ consumption practices and a suggested diversion from ‘the effects’ perspective on young consumers’ socialization.

This chapter adds to those which problematize the tendency to view young consumers’ interactions with consumption as measurable by having to pass through pre-defined stages if they are to become recognized as complete consumers. Instead this research aligns with the perspective that young consumers, like adults, must mediate the shifting milieus of their social lives through engagement with a myriad consumption practices.

This perspective responds to an acknowledged empirical dearth (e.g. Martens, Southerton, & Scott, 2004). However, secondly in line with Arnould & Thompson’s (2005) original motivation that CCT encapsulate those who see our discipline as ripe with the potential for new theory generation and widespread applicability, this research aligns micro understandings and theorizations of children’s social worlds and consumer culture practices with existing meso- and macro-levels of consumption theory.