How parents develop their children’s consumer abilities

While taking children to supermarkets isn’t always at the top of the parent’s list, family grocery stores can have a positive impact on your child’s future buying habits.

A study by Wakaihauka of the University of Otago – Chapel, published by Young Consumers, found that parents can help children become competent consumers by engaging in supermarket shopping and explaining their purchase options and the reasons for the value that supports them.

Co-authors Professor Leah Watkins and Professor Rob Aitken of the Otago Business School’s Marketing Bureau have set out to discover factors that can help children make thoughtful spending decisions as they grow up.

Associate Professor Watkins says a central concern for researchers is how individuals can become competent consumers and develop the ability to make independent and informed choices between competing alternatives in relation to economic, social and personal considerations.

“Given the growing commercialization of childhoods, it’s becoming more and more important to understand how children learn about the consumption environment they live in and develop the capabilities they need to negotiate.”

They studied parent-child pairs, ages 10-12, who were tasked with doing a week of shopping for their families.

While loading the trolley, the children were reliably restocking not only common household items such as salt, pepper, cooking oil, tissue, food wrap and toiletries, but also essential groceries, food oil, toiletries, and more.

They made sure to include certain items other families liked, such as their favorite shampoo.

Importantly, they were conscious of making healthy choices – swapping the majority of the store for fresh fruits, bread and vegetables – and reflecting the parents’ values ​​regarding fru and ethical consumption.

When considering pricing, children recognized the need to keep it within budget and reflect on price promotions, and balanced this to determine which products were the best value for money.

Associate Professor Watkins says the study revealed that children are capable, thoughtful and enthusiastic consumers.

“The results show that children were highly aware of competing demands of individual and family needs and presented complex decisions that recognized the need to coordinate the needs of different families.”

What makes a positive difference is how parents talk to their children about purchasing choices, she says.

Many parents in this study identified grocery shopping as an opportunity to teach children the values ​​and principles that motivated product preferences, such as the importance of healthy eating behavior and ethical consumption.

“Children gained considerable practical knowledge from observing parents’ behaviors regarding dietary planning, product selection, e.g. home provisioning, but also acquired basic knowledge from parents’ intentional explanations and legitimacy of consumption choices.”

Parental influence on children’s consumption behaviors is crucial for the development of long-term attitudes and beliefs, she says.

Professor Aitken says their research was inspired by previous research in the 1950s. There, researchers tried to discover what consumption choices children would make in supermarkets if they were freed from financial constraints without parental control.

“The assumption was that children would make decisions based on their self-interest and personal dul,” he says.

Children in the 1950s made wise choices, but researchers fell into a living experience through post-World War II shortages and austerity.

“Our research has made me want to know whether escalating consumption rates in the world today affect children’s choices, but I was surprised to see them making conscientious decisions.”