The Influence of Commercialism on the Food Purchasing Behavior of Children and Teenage Youth

Family Economics and Nutrition Review, Summer, 1998 by Vivica Kraak, David L. Pelletier

Division of Nutritional Sciences Cornell University

Striving to achieve optimal nutritional well-being among children is a high priority, given our knowledge relating nutrition to disease risks and the importance of early childhood experiences in forming lifetime behavioral patterns. The eating patterns of children and teenagers have changed significantly over the past two decades. Children and teenage youth are eating more frequently, getting a greater proportion of their nutrient intake from snacks, eating more meals away from home, and consuming more fast food (4,16). Nationwide surveys show that food consumption patterns of most American children do not meet the Dietary Guidelines. The average diet of American children exceeds the recommendations for rat, saturated fat, and sodium, and childhood obesity is a growing problem across all income strata (16). Thus, it appears unlikely that the goals for children's diets for fat and saturated fat set forth in the Healthy People Objectives 2000 will be reached by the year 2000 (16).

Children are becoming consumers at younger and younger ages, and a variety of influences and experiences shapes their consumer habits. Of particular interest and concern are factors that affect their food- and nutrition-related decisions and behavior. Many factors interplay to affect children's and teenage youths' consumer decisionmaking skills and behavior that can directly influence their dietary choices and eating patterns. The family has been identified as one of the most influential environmental factors affecting food- and nutrition-related decisions and behavior, operating at the levels of parent modeling and parent-child interactions (7).

Recent changes in American family structure, intrafamilial decisionmaking, and women's work patterns have had a profound influence on the growing economic power, control, and independence of children and teenage youth, with the result that they now exert a stronger influence on family decision-making than their cohorts did in previous years (21). Other factors that may potentially affect children's and teenage youths' consumer habits are peer influence, ethnicity and culture, the school environment, and commercialism (4,21,25).

Commercialism is broadly defined as the vehicle of communication that creates consumer awareness and induces the desire for specific products; its goal is to increase consumer demand and commercial profit (25). Commercial pressures on children and teenage youth may encourage continual consumption and acquisition at the expense of informed consumer decisionmaking and environmental sensitivity (2). Children with poorly developed consumer decision-making skills are unprepared to make wise purchases as adults, a situation that has serious implications for the consumer habits and nutritional health of future generations.

The purpose of this paper is to review the general purchasing power, purchase influence, and habits of children, ages 4-11, and teenage youth, ages 12-19. The review is followed by an examination of the influence of commercialism on food purchasing behavior. In particular, this paper reviews the findings and trends from the marketing literature, rather than from the nutrition education literature, in order to share the marketing perspective with nutrition professionals. Specifically, it aims to integrate what has been learned from consumer behavior research into nutrition education interventions so that young consumers can make informed choices and purchases in the marketplace. The findings are discussed within the broader context of consumer socialization.

Purchasing Power, Purchase Influence, and Habits

Descriptive data from marketing surveys provide useful information about children's and teenage youths' amount and sources of income, as well as their saving and spending habits. Data from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households indicate that about 47 percent of teenagers ages 12-18 living in two-parent families receive an allowance, and an estimated 62 percent report earned income (9). According to the 1990 Consumer Expenditure Survey, teenage youth, ages 14-19, employed outside the home had mean annual earnings of $2,611 in two-earner, two-parent families, compared with $2,704 in one-earner, two-parent families. These results suggest that the direct monetary contribution of teenage youths' employment on middle-class family income and expenditures appears to be minimal (9), compared with their influence on family purchases.

In 1989, the income of 4- to 12-year-olds averaged $4.42 each week or about $230 each year (22). Between 1989 and 1991, the income of this age group increased 82 percent despite an economic recession. This is a significant figure to marketers, because the majority of children can use most of their money for discretionary purposes (22). Children receive more than 80 percent of their income from the family and the remainder from other sources such as outside jobs. Income sources include gifts from parents, relatives, and friends; household chores; and work done outside the home (20). The purchasing power of children and teenage youth increases significantly beyond what they earn or receive as gifts when their "purchase influence"[1] is considered (27).