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University of Lugano

Faculty of Communication Sciences________________________________________________

Parental mediation of children's

TV advertising exposure and its

effects on children

A parent survey

Masters Thesis

of

Tanja Glii

04-983-839

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Andreina Mandelli

Academic year 2005/06


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University of Lugano

Faculty of Communication Sciences________________________________________________

Parental mediation of children's

TV advertising exposure and its

effects on children

A parent survey

Masters Thesis

of

Tanja Glii

04-983-839

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Andreina Mandelli

Academic year 2005/06


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ii

za moju Lanuku, i njenu kucu, i njenu macu, i za mog Gilia


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SUMMARY

The study conducted in this work addresses consumer socialization of preschoolers by

focusing on their parents mediation of both childrens TV advertising exposure and

childrens purchase requests, and possible parent-child conflict induced by TV advertising.

Based on the literature review, a research model was developed to explore parental role in

mediating both TV advertising exposure and childrens purchase requests induced by TV

advertising and their relation to childs purchase requests and parent-child conflict. An

exploratory study was then developed to test the developed research model, intending to

contribute to the previous research by answering following questions: 1. Is any of TV

advertising mediation strategies, active or restrictive, strongly related to occurrence of

purchase requests and parent-child conflict?; 2. Is there a difference between Pluralistic,

Protective, Consensual and Laissez-faire parents in type of purchase denial they make and

are some types of denials strongly related to occurrence of childs purchase requests and

parent-child conflict? Moreover, the hypothesis H1 was tested: Concept-oriented parents

are apt to use active TV advertising mediation strategy, while socio-oriented parents are

apt to use restrictive TV advertising mediation strategy.

The exploratory study conducted in this work included the parents of preschool childrenthat attend infancy school in municipality of Paradiso, Switzerland.

The results indicate that moderate to strong dependence exists between active mediation

strategy that parents in the sample use and childs reaction to purchase denial. Weak to

moderate dependence between the type of parental denial and purchase requests, and very

weak dependence between the type of parental denial and conflict was established. It was

found, with weak dependence, that Protective mothers use explanation when deny

purchase requests and that Consensual mothers do not use any specific but rather differenttypes of purchase denial. Further, it was found that socio-oriented parents in the sample

are apt to use active mediation strategy which is opposite from the hypothesis tested. In

addition, they are apt to use restrictive mediation only in a combination with active

mediation. For concept-oriented parents in the sample there was weak to moderate and

moderate relation to restrictive and active mediation strategies, respectively.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work would never be completed without precious help of very kind people that I

would like to thank:

Professor Andreina Mandelli for supervising this work and all the help and ideas she gave

me as well as for giving me the freedom to fulfill my own ideas.

Assistant Ms. Antonella La Rocca for help in logistic matters.

The teachers of the infancy school in Paradiso: Mrs. Barbara Baggiolini, Mrs. Muriel

Bandoni, Mrs. Renata Corti, Mrs. Myriam Gargantini, Mrs Paola Romano, and the

director of the infancy school Mr. Flavio Guglielmetti, for authorizing me to conduct my

study in the infancy school and for their availability and help in distributing and collecting

the questionnaires allowing me in that way to perform this work in an efficient and prompt

manner.

All the parents, residents of Paradiso, that filled in the questionnaire and, in that way,

helped me to conclude this research project.

Ms. Nicoletta Casanova for her time and efforts spent in translation of my documents from

English to correct Italian.

Mojoj seki, Dr. Danici Kragi, na koju sam neizmjerno ponosna. Ima toliko toga na emu

bi ti htjela zahvalitihvala seki!

Mojima mami i tati koji su mi uvijek davali podrku u svemu. Mojim Gliiima to su

vjerovali u mene. Veliko hvala i mojoj Baki. Hvala i obitelji Jensfelt, posebno Patricu i

Katji.

Lani i Giliu to su izdrali! Mom blagu, mojoj Lani, koja mi je dala snagu kada je nije

bilo i mom Giletu koji je vjerovao u mene, davao mi podrku na sve mogue naine i volio

me uz sve moje mogue i nemogue uspone i padove.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMARY iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1. CHILDRENS CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION AND PARENTS ROLE 1

1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 3

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4

1.4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 5

1.5. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 6

CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH 8

2.1. THE RELATION AND EFFECTS OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING ON PARENT-CHILD

CONFLICT

8

2.1.1. Literature review 8

2.1.2. Discussion and conclusions 19

2.2. PARENTAL MEDIATION OF TV ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND CHILDS

PURCHASE REQUESTS

21

2.2.1. Family communication environment 22

2.2.1.1. Literature review 22

2.2.1.2. Discussion and conclusions with propositions for the current

study

26

2.2.2 Active and restrictive parental mediation of childs TV advertising

exposure

27



study

31

2.2.3 Parental mediation of childs product desire and purchase request

induced by TV advertising

32



study

34


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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH MODEL AND METHODOLOGY 37

3.1. OVERVIEW 37

3.2. THE RESEARCH MODEL 38

3.3. METHODOLOGY 40

3.3.1. Sample and data collection procedure 41

3.3.2. Measures 43

3.3.3. Data analysis procedure 47

3.3.4. Discussion about limitations of methodology used 48

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 49

4.1. SAMPLE PROFILE 49

4.2. RESPONDENTS DATA REGARDING PARENTAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS

AND TV ADVERTISING EXPOSURE MEDIATION STRATEGY

55

4.3. CHILDRENS TV VIEWING AND PURCHASE REQUESTS 57

4.4. PARENTAL RESPONSE TO PURCHASE REQUESTS, TYPE OF PARENTAL DENIAL OF

CHILDS PURCHASE REQUESTS AND CHILDS USUAL REACTION TO DENIAL

59

4.5. EXAMINATION OF HYPOTHESIS H1 65

4.6. EXAMINATION OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS RQ1 AND RQ2 70

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK 76

5.1. CONCLUSIONS 76

5.2. LIMITATIONS 80

5.3. FUTURE RESEARCH 81

REFERENCES 82

APPENDIX 86

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE EXPLORATORY STUDY-ENGLISH VERSION 87

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE EXPLORATORY STUDY-ITALIAN VERSION 91


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Child and advertising oriented research has two major approaches. One is generally

experimental approach addressing cognitive development, whereby childrens information

processing and decision making have been examined extensively at different stages of the

development. The second is an environmental approach addressing consumer

socialization, whereby learning from advertising and other sources is examined within its

social and cultural context. Both consumer socialization and cognitive development

provide important fundamental research perspectives.

The study conducted in this work addresses consumer socialization of preschoolers by

focusing on their parents means to mediate both childrens TV advertising exposure and

childrens purchase requests, and possible parent-child conflict induced by TV advertising.

1.1. CHILDRENS CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION AND PARENTS ROLE

Ward (1974, 2) defined the consumer socialization as the process by which young people

acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the

marketplace. Consumer socialization theory emphasizes that children gain consumption-

related skills, knowledge, and attitudes through the interaction with socialization agents in

various social settings. Such socialization agents include parents, peers, schools, and mass

media. Especially for young children, the two primary socialization sources are the family

and the media (Solomon 2004). From childhood on, parents provide childrens basic

physical and mental needs; they rear and give emotional support; they have knowledgeand are skilled in doing things about which children need to learn. All these are the

reasons why the parents are one of the most important socialization agents (Bao 2001).

Childrens learning might involve three processes: modelling, reinforcement, and social

interaction (Moschis 1985).


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First, by performing certain acts, a family member may consciously or unconsciously

communicate certain norms and expectations to others. The communication in this case is

likely to take place at a cognitive level, and consumer learning is likely to be the result of

observation or imitation of these behaviours. A child may make a conscious effort to

imitate the behaviour of his/her parents because the parents behaviour is the most salient

alternative open to him/her (i.e., a child does the same things as parents do in order to be

like them).

The second learning process, reinforcement, involves either reward (i.e., positive

reinforcement of desired skills, knowledge and attitudes) or punishment (i.e., negative

reinforcement of undesired skills, knowledge and attitudes) mechanisms used by the

socialization agents (Moschis 1985). When children are rewarded for engaging in certain

behaviour, they might retain the behaviour to expect further reward. Consequently, if

parents yield childs purchase requests induced by TV advertising, children might keep

asking for the products being advertised. When children are punished for certain

behaviour, they might stop that behaviour to avoid future punishment.

The reciprocal influence between source and learner is the focus of the third learning

process, social interaction (Bao 2001). During social interaction, children do not simply

act, they react. For example, when parents limit childrens TV viewing (TV advertisingviewing), children may accept it or may refuse it. Under the latter situation, some parents

may force children to accept the restriction with punishment. Some parents may explain

why children should not watch too much TV and children accept the explanation. Through

this explanation, children may learn about parents orientations and their reasons of

concern. Parents may also listen to children, evaluate their reasoning and modify the

restriction. In that way children influence their parents through the interaction. Social

interaction between children and socialization agents (especially parents) continuously

modify childrens personality and self-concept development. Thus the frequency andquality of communication between children and the social agents have great impact on

childrens development as well as parents' adjustment toward children. For example,

research suggests that frequent parent-child communication increases parents influence

on childrens consumption behaviours (Moschis 1985).


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1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Some researchers underline that parents may influence childrens orientations only to the

extent that children accurately perceive and reinterpret them. Childrens perceptions of

their parents views rather than their parents actual beliefs and attitudes may have more

impact on the development of childrens orientations (Carlson, Walsh, Laczniak, and

Grossbart 1994).

Additionally, Wackman, Wartella and Ward (1977) say that the childs interpretation of

his experience will determine the influence of environmental factors on his cognitive

growth. For example, a young child may interpret mothers refusal of a request for a toy in

a number of ways the toy is an inappropriate gift, the toy is dangerous, mother is mean,

etc. The child may interpret all, or only some, of these aspects of the situation, and,

depending on his/her interpretation, very different learning outcomes may occur. In

addition, when the environment provides new experiences, which can be assimilated and

accommodated to the childs cognitive level, then new cognitive abilities can be

developed at a much earlier age.

Ward et al. (1977, see for a review Moschis 1985, 904) identified methods that mothers

use to teach children consumer skills: prohibiting certain acts, giving lectures on consumeractivities, holding discussions with the child about consumer decisions, acting as an

example, and allowing the child to learn from his/her own experience. According to this

research, most mothers use relatively few teaching methods. Therefore, although the

family plays an important role in consumer socialization of the young children, it seems

that parental influence is often incidental and that it proceeds through subtle interpersonal

processes rather than via direct, purposive consumer training (parent-child discussions

about consumption are most likely to be initiated as a result of the childs request for a

product that he/she sees advertised).

Also according to Corder-Bolz (1980) parents do not make extensive use of existing

means for intentional influences. In addition, The literature suggests that parents may not

sufficiently recognize the importance of their indirect methods of influence, frequently

serving as poor role models or cultivating communication patterns within the family that


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do not help children develop effective decision-making skills (Fujioka and Austin 2002,

643).

Parental mediation is often considered the most effective tool in the management of

televisions influence on children (W. A. Donohue and Meyer 1984, cited from Buijzen

and Valkenburg 2005, 153). Children usually watch television in a family context that is

largely provided by their parents, which can indeed play the vital role in helping children

to become literate as television viewers (Singer and Singer 1998).

However, Fujioka and Austin (2002, 642) stated although a number of studies have

examined parental influences, we still know little about parents motivations for

discussing media messages or the results of such discussions.

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

While actually parents and their children of any age might live unintended TV advertising

effects, much of existing research on family communication structure focuses on

adolescents, and one would expect the family influence to be even greater with younger

children (Roedder 1999, 206). The state of research did not change much since 1999,especially when it comes to the research of relation between parental mediation and

occurrence of frequent childrens purchase requests and child-parent conflict, both induced

by TV advertising exposure. In fact, there is only one study that examined this subject

made by Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005). Thus, study conducted in this work refers to

preschool children and their parents that are residents of municipality of Paradiso,

Switzerland.

The study was proposed to pursue the following questions, aiming to contribute to the

previous research:

1. Is any of TV advertising exposure mediation strategies, active or restrictive, strongly

related to occurrence of purchase requests (a) and parent-child conflict (b)?


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2. Is there a difference between Pluralistic, Protective, Consensual and Laissez-faire

parents in type of purchase denial they make (c) and, are some types of denials strongly

related to occurrence of childs purchase requests (a) and parent-child conflict (b)?

1.4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In order to better understand the effects of television advertising on children and their

family, researchers have focused on the process of interaction between parent and child

regarding the childs consumer behaviour. The child must usually make purchase request

to his/her parents, who then yield to the request or deny it. This mediation of childs

purchase request enables parents to make instruction about the realities of the marketplace

or results in parent-child conflict (Robertson 1979). However, according to Fujioka and

Austin (2002), while the familys mediating role is well documented, the nature and

consequences of parental mediation of TV advertising effects are not very clear.

Therefore, this study gives a contribution to previous research, which contains a number

of gaps and biases (Livingstone 2005, 277) and where most research is conducted in

America, with little research in other countries or cultural contexts.

In Switzerland there are several federal and self-regulatory codes to regulate advertising to

children. Switzerland is not member of the European Union, so the European Law does

not apply. The most important law regulating advertising in Switzerland is the Federal

Law Against Unfair Competition, which bans any unfair and wrong behaviour or business

conduct that is deceptive or in any way contravenes the principle of good faith. However,

Switzerland has no specific law that deals with advertising to children (see for a review

Hofer and Bieri 2005). In addition, there is a possibility that Swiss children are exposed to

TV advertising of bordering countries Italy, Germany or France. For example, Italian TV

channels (especially commercial networks) reaching Italian-speaking part of Switzerland

might carry heavy levels of TV commercials directed at children.


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According to the authors knowledge, there has not been made any similar study in

Switzerland. Therefore, the results of this study may have implications for the people

involved in daily care of children in the infancy school of Paradiso as well as for

academics investigating unintended TV advertising effects on children and parental

mediation of those effects on their children.

On the other hand, it might contribute to an understanding of more general issue of when

behaviour and consumption can be predicted more accurately.

1. 5. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

The study is organized as follows. This introduction chapter is divided in five small parts.

First gives an overview about consumer socialization and the ways by which children

learn from their parents. Second part is focused on statement of the problem where is

presented the state of research about parental mediation in general and where is

emphasized its importance. In the third part, research questions are introduced. Fourth part

is focused on significance of the study and is followed by this part about the structure of

the thesis.

The introduction chapter is followed by a background and motivation for the research that

is divided into three parts. Part one reviews the literature about effects of televisionadvertising on parent-child conflict guiding from childrens TV advertising exposure until

occurrence of parent-child conflict. Part two is divided in two sections were the first

focuses on reviewed literature about parental mediation of TV advertising exposure and

the second focuses on reviewed literature about parental mediation of childs product

desire and purchase requests. Based on discussions and conclusions at the end of both

sections, there are formulated research questions.

Chapter 3 discusses research model where is highlighted a parental participation in the

path from childrens TV advertising exposure to parent-child conflict. Therefore, the

model is focused on parental mediation and presents variables that appear to be related

among themselves (TV advertising exposure, childrens purchase request and parent-

child conflict). This chapter continues with discussion about the research methodology

applied in the exploratory study, including sample and data collection procedure,


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measures, and the appropriate statistical procedure for testing the hypothesis and

answering research questions.

Data analysis and results are presented in Chapter 4.

Main findings are discussed in Chapter 5 where, at the end, research limitations as well as

future research avenues are offered.


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CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH

8

CHAPTER 2

BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH

2.1. THE RELATION AND EFFECTS OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING ON PARENT-CHILD

CONFLICT

2.1.1. Literature review

According to Rossiter (1979), two types of general effects of childrens exposure to TV

advertising may be discerned. Fist type is the cumulative exposure effect that refers to the

impact of TV advertising on children as they grow older and thus are exposed to more

commercials. The second type is the heavy-viewing effect that refers to the impact of TV

advertising on children, who, within age groups, are more heavily exposed to commercials

than their peers.

Beside these general effects, there are three categories of specific effects: cognitive effects

or childrens ability to understand the nature and purpose of TV advertising; attitudinal

effects or childrens feelings toward TV commercials and their reaction to TV advertising

as social institution; and behavioural effects or extent to which children are persuaded to

want, and to ask for, advertised products.

While TV advertising directed at children appears to be effective in creating positive

attitudes and behaviour toward advertised products, there are some studies that discuss

unintended outcomes of such advertising. Since this work deals with relation between

parental mediation and parent-child conflict induced by TV advertising, this section

focuses on review of literature about parent-child conflict as unintended behavioural effect

of TV advertising.

A number of early studies have noted a correspondence between the products children like

and request and those advertised on TV (Galst and White 1976; Robertson and Rossiter


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1976; Resnik and Stern 1977). A child must normally request a product from parents, who

then yield to the request or deny it. This mediation of childrens requests presents parents

with an opportunity both for positive instruction of the child about the marketplace, and

for conflict and resentment (Robertson 1979).

Review that follows is based on few studies that investigate advertising exposure,

purchase requests and parent-child conflict, and relationship among some of them.

Galst and White (1976) study consisted in two parts - an experimental televiewing study

conducted within the childs school in order to determine commercial-reinforcement value

for each child, and a field study involving the direct observation of the childs purchase-

influencing attempts at the supermarket. In the study participated 41 children (20 girls and

21 boys) aged 3-11 to 5-11 (mean age 4 to 7) and their mothers. All participating children

were attending one of two affiliated Montessori nursery schools located in New York,

USA.

In the first study each child was observed individually in a room within their school while

watching the program with commercials. The program with commercials would stop

playing at intervals and the child had to press button in order to continue to watch. There

were videotaped three half-hour television programs viewed heavily by children andcommercials were presented as a typical segment preceding the introduction of the

program. The child was told to watch the program as long as desired. Children were

allowed to watch only one program at each sitting, and at least one week interval separated

each television-viewing session.

In the second study, the same children were observed while shopping with their mothers.

The researchers observed how often child was making an independent purchasing request

(by asking, pointing, putting in the basket, or grabbing for the product), buying an itemwith his or her own money, or making a decision when given a choice by the parent. After

this second study, the purpose of the experiments was explained to parents and parents had

to fill in questionnaire about their children television exposure at home. Over four-day

period, parents had to mark programs that their children watched for 15 minutes and more.

Program listings for all 4 days were provided to them.


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This study demonstrated that purchasing-influencing attempts at the supermarket were

related to the reinforcement value of television commercials and to the amount of TV

viewing children were exposed to at home.

The major finding was that, the harder a child worked to maintain commercials on a TV

monitor, as compared with the program narrative, and the more commercial television he

or she watched at home, the greater the number of purchase-influencing attempts directed

at his or her mother at the supermarket he or she made. The significance of this finding is

that a behavioural measure of both childrens television-viewing behaviour and their

purchase-influencing attempts instead of reliance on mothers reports has determined that

television commercials are related to at least one aspect of childrens consumer behaviour

their purchase-influencing attempts at supermarket. As conclusion, researchers said that

is hard to escape the suggestion that children who may be more tuned in to television

commercials may be developing an attitude toward consumerism and product acquisition

from commercial television. The fact that hours of television watching per week correlated

significantly with purchase influencing attempts further supports this possibility.

Moreover, this study demonstrated a correspondence between the foods that dominated

childrens TV commercials and the food products that dominated childrens requests at the

supermarket.

Ward and Wackman (1972) study investigated childrens purchase influence attempts,

parental yielding and occurrence of conflict. Self-administrated questionnaires were

collected from 132 mothers of 5 to 12 years old children in Boston metropolitan area,

USA. Mothers social status ranged from upper to upper-middle classes. The items in the

questionnaire asked mothers to report on the behaviour of one of their children.

Mothers were asked to indicate the frequency of their childs purchase influence attempts

for 22 products that were heavily advertised, but varied in price, frequency of purchase,and relevance to the child. Analysis of data indicated that children frequently attempted to

influence purchases for food products, but the attempts decreased with age. Mothers of

younger children (5 to 7 years old) indicated frequent influence attempts for game and toy

purchases.


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Data indicate across most product categories that mothers tend to yield to influence

attempts the older the child is. The correlation between childrens purchase influence

attempts and mothers yielding was positive and significant. Clearly, children who ask for

products more often receive them more often also. However, not many parents failed to

yield to purchase influence attempts.

The relationship between age and influence attempts approached significance and was

negative. A positive correlation was obtained between age and parental yielding. Thus,

while parents may receive more purchase influence attempts from young children, they are

more likely to act on them as the child grows older.

The data indicate a significant positive relationship between conflict and influence

attempts suggesting that purchase influence attempts may be a part of a general pattern of

disagreement and conflict between parent and children or even their cause. No

relationship was observed between conflict and yielding.

Restrictions on viewing and yielding were negatively related. Thus the more restrictions

parents place on a childs television viewing, the less they yield to his/her purchase

influence attempts. Interestingly, however, no relationship obtained between restrictions

and influence attempts.

Finally, a weak positive relationship was noticed between attitudes toward advertising and

yielding. Mothers with more positive attitudes toward advertising were more likely to

yield than mothers with less favourable attitudes; their children were not more likely to

ask for products than other children, however.

The study of Sheikh and Moleski (1977) employed the story completion method in order

to investigate conflict in the family over commercials. This procedure involves presentinga child with a story beginning that involves a child of the same gender and age engaged in

a certain activity. The child is instructed to complete the story by telling what the main

character is thinking and feeling, and what happens as a result of the presented

circumstances.


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Respondents in this study were 48 children from the first, third and fifth grades in the

Milwaukee metropolitan area, USA. Each of the three groups consisted of equal number

of boys and girls originating from the upper-middle class families.

Three story beginnings were used and in each one the gender of the main character varied

according to the gender of the respondent. Each story stem involved the main character in

the presence of his or her parents, watching one of his or her favourite television programs

which was interrupted repeatedly by a particular commercial. The major difference in the

three story stems lay in the nature of the product being advertised: it was a food product, a

toy, or a clothing item.

Immediately following the presentation of the story stem, specific questions were

presented one by one to the children. In response to the first question, Do you think

Johnny (Mary) felt like asking his/her parents to buy him/her that .? Over 90% of the

children answered affirmative. No significant grade or gender differences were found.

The response to the question Did he/she ask both his/her father and mother, or only

his/her father or only his/her mother? revealed the following preferences: both father and

mother were mentioned as the target of requests by 43%; father alone was chosen by

10.3% and mother alone by 46.5% of the children. A larger portion of the boys than girlsperceived themselves asking only their father.

In response to the question What did they (he/she) say? over 66% of children felt their

parents would yield to their purchase requests.

Response to the final, open-ended question What happened when they (he/she) said

no? were coded into the following five categories, which are listed in order of the

overall frequency with which they occurred: unpleasant affect (33.33%), acceptance(23.19%), aggression (22.71%), persistence (15.97%), and irrelevant response (4.8%).

Unpleasant affect involved feelings that were of negative nature (he felt sad, she cried);

acceptance indicated approval of parental denial (he said OK and went out to play);

aggression referred to the explanation of hostility by the child (he was mad); persistence

was coded for continued or repeated requests (she asked again); the irrelevant category


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reflected responses that were not pertinent to the question asked. Girls exhibited

significantly more unpleasant affect than the boys; decrease of unpleasant affect was

significant from the third to the fifth grade; decrease of acceptance was significant from

the first to the third grade; aggressive responses significantly increased from first to third

grade.

The study made by Goldberg and Gorn (1978) examined a number of unintended

outcomes of TV advertising directed at children. The experiment was designed to test

whether a childs disappointment and unhappiness upon failure to receive an advertised

toy were in function of exposure to TV commercials for the toy. It was hypothesized that a

child who saw a toy commercial on TV would express more unhappiness when denied a

request for a toy than would a child who did not see the commercial but knew of the toys

existence. This study also examined the potential influence of TV advertising on parent-

child relations, like conflict that may follow denials of requested toy and which, TV or

parental guidance (parent advice about toy inappropriateness) is the child more likely to

heed.

Four to five year old preschoolers were drawn from nursery schools in Montreal, Canada

and were exposed to commercials for familiar toy in the context of a ten-minute neutral

program appropriate for preschoolers. The control group saw the program withoutcommercials but was familiar with the toy. This assessment tended to demonstrate how

much the commercial enhanced the value of the toy by placing it in an attractive context.

First experimental group saw the program with commercial for the toy at the beginning of

the program and at the end of it. The second experimental group saw the program with

commercials on two consecutive days. The data were pooled for the three schools and

responses in each of the schools revealed without difference.

When children were told that their mother expressed the preference for the ball (and notfor advertised toy), 79% of control group accepted her judgment and expressed that they

liked the ball too. In the case of the first experimental group, 54% of all children followed

their mother judgment on both measurement days. The result in the second experimental

group was 41% immediate measurement and 54% one day later.


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In the same experiment, Goldberg and Gorn used a second operationalization of the

conflict. After exposure to the preschoolers program described previously, children were

told a story about a boy who asked his father for the advertised toy, but did not receive it.

Then the children were presented with pictures representing two hypothetical responses of

the boy. The first picture showed a child happily hugging his father, while the second

showed a child walking away from his father. The children were asked how they thought

the boy in the story would react. Three of five children (60%) in the control group felt that

a boy still wanted to play with his dad. Regarding the children that were exposed to

commercial this percentage was smaller but only for one group this percentage was

significant (only 39% opted for playing with dad). The results showed that children who

had seen the commercial more often chose the picture of the boy walking away from his

father, although the differences between the two groups was statistically significant in

only one from four measurements.

In Atkins supermarket study (1975c, for a review, see Goldberg and Gorn 1978; Isler,

Popper and Ward 1987), one-sixth of a group of children surveyed said they argue with

their mothers a lot after denial of toy requests while one-third responded they argued

sometimes. In the study, which was based on self-reports, participated 738 children

ranging from preschoolers to fifth-graders. By directly observing purchase situations insupermarkets, Atkin (1975b, for a review see Goldberg and Gorn 1978; Isler, Popper and

Ward 1987) found that conflict followed two-thirds of mothers denials of childrens

cereal requests and children expressed unhappiness one-half of the time. However, such

conflict is described as being seldom intense or persistent. Atkin notes that conflict and

unhappiness were greatest among 6- to 8-year-olds.

Isler, Popper and Ward (1987) made a diary study with central objective to describe the

intrafamily dynamics associated with childrens requests for product and services,frequency with which children ask for things, the nature of products and services they

request, how and where they make requests, and how they respond if their mothers do not

accede to the product request. They also examined the nature of mothers response to

childrens requests and their perception of the key reasons for childrens specific request.


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250 families were sampled from various socioeconomic areas in Boston, USA.

Participating mothers completed diaries each day for 28 days for one child in the family.

The final sample consisted of 118 5- to 7-years-olds, 102 9- to 11-years-olds, and an

exploratory subsample of 30 3- to 4-year-olds.

Regarding the results of this study, although the exploratory sample of 30 3- to 4-year-olds

was relatively small, results indicate that these children make more requests than older

children. The location of childrens requests differed by age, probably reflecting the

greater tendency of mothers to take younger children shopping. Nearly 40% of the

requests by 3- to 4-year-olds were made while shopping and 45% at home, while 32% of

the requests by 5- to 7-year-olds were made while shopping and 56 % at home.

Regarding the nature of childs requests, mothers reported that most children simply ask

for products. Pleading, defined as repetitive and anxious asking with a single request

episode, occurred for only about 11% (3-4 years olds) and 15% (5-7 years olds); seen it

on TV occurred slightly more than 6 %.

In 51% of the cases, mothers did not mind buying and said yes immediately; while no

or stall responses were noted for higher priced items.

In 14% of cases, mothers did not mind buying but discussed before saying yes and in

16% of cases either said yes but not to the brand child wanted, said no but agreed to

buy something else instead or said maybe sometime but not now.

When it comes to plead it seems that mothers tend to discuss and explain before giving

positive or negative response. Finally, 61% of requests based on TV advertising were

granted and about 35% were characterized by a yes, with a discussion. On the other

hand, among requests that were denied, those based on TV advertising were most likely toelicit stall responses (55%) and no with an explanation why (31%).

According to the results, mothers tend to give an affirmative answer right away more

easily to very young children and to use less less with discussion than with older

children. If they deny the requested product, it seems that discussion is more present with


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very young children. For those requests that were refused, 51% of children took it okay,

26% was disappointed and 17% argued a little. While took it okay percent reduce with

childs age, other two responses increase.

Mothers perceptions about main reasons for 3- to 4-year-olds requests are saw in store

and saw TV ad, while for 5- to 7- year-olds requests are saw in store, sibling/friend

has it and saw TV ad, respectively. Reports of mothers refusals leading to conflict

were rare. Unfortunately, researchers did not made correlation between type of denial and

occurrence of conflict (that was rare) but, as may bee seen from data, mother either

explained her denial (31%) or said maybe (55%) as response to childs purchasing request

induced by TV advertising.

Robertson et al. (1989) made a cross-cultural study in which they assessed the television-

viewing behaviour of American, Japanese and British children and examined some

determinants of product-requesting behaviour and parent-child conflict. While doing so,

authors enclose the data about childrens viewing levels of commercial television, their

product-requesting behaviour, and levels of parent-child conflict and examine

relationships between amount of watching and product-request frequency, and between

request frequency and parent-child conflict.

Determinants that were examined are independence of the child from parents (in doing

things), demanding nature of the child (the extent to which the child pushes the parents to

have his or her own way and the extent to which the child demands things) and the extent

to which the child communicates with his or her parents.

A survey and diary methodology was used. Studies involved mothers maintaining for two

week period two diaries, one for purchase requests and one for television viewing. Each

mother was asked to observe and record unobtrusively the childs purchase requests andtelevision-viewing behaviour, for the one child in the household between the ages of 3 and

10 years. At the end of two week period, a questionnaire designed to investigate parent-

child interaction, demographics and television specific information was completed by each

respondent.


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The sample included 84 American, 118 Japanese and 65 English families. Participating

families were drawn from middle-class backgrounds. Even with these limitations of a

sample size, authors determined conditional relationships that can be summarized as

follows: the more demanding the child is, the greater television viewing, the more requests

to parents, and the greater the parent-child conflict; the higher the level of television

viewing, the more the requests and the greater the resulting parent-child conflict. The

authors found that there is no relationship between parental rule making and childs

demanding neither between parental rule making and childs communicating at the

individual level. The coefficients responding to both, the relationship of the

communicating or the relationship of independence with TV viewing, number of requests

and occurrence of the conflict were not significant.

The Buijzen and Valkenburg (2003a) made a study based on a vote-counting analysis that

is a formalized count of the number of studies that either produce or fail to produce

statistically significant findings in the hypothesized direction. In this study, vote-counting

analysis provides a comprehensive review of the related research literature.

Researchers have modelled the hypothesized relations between advertising and three

unintended effects. The model describes the advertising-effects hypotheses with regard to

materialism, parentchild conflict, and unhappiness that have received research attention.

According to the authors, although it is possible that advertising exposure directly

influences parentchild conflict, it seems more plausible that this relation between

exposure to advertising and parentchild conflict is mediated by childrens purchase

requests and parental denial of these requests. According to this mediational hypothesis,

advertising (a) leads to an increased number of requests for advertised products on the part

of children, which (b) leads to an increased number of product denials (given that not all

requests can be granted), which then (c) causes conflict between a parent and a child.

Researchers concluded that The results of the correlational and experimental studies are

in agreement with the hypothesis that advertising enhances parentchild conflict.

However, the majority of the studies are correlational. The sole experiment that has been

conducted focused exclusively on children in early childhood, and resulted in only a


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partial confirmation of the hypothesis. Therefore, the scientifically conservative

conclusion is that advertising enhances parentchild conflict, but that decisive evidence is

still lacking (452).

The Buijzen and Valkenburg study (2003b), based on a parent-child dyad survey

conducted in February 2002, had the aim to investigate how television advertising is

related to childrens purchase requests, materialism, disappointment, life dissatisfaction,

and family conflict. In a first step, a conceptual model based on existing hypotheses was

developed (2003a), in a second step, this model was tested using a sample of 360 parent-

child (8- to 12-year-olds) dyads. A parent-child sample was chosen because some

variables in the study (e.g., advertising exposure) researchers assumed to be more

accurately measured among children, whereas other variables (e.g., socioeconomic status,

parental mediation) researchers assumed to be more adequately measured among parents.

However, to check whether children were able to produce reliable responses on the

advertising effects variables, authors measured these variables (i.e., materialism, purchase

requests, and parentchild conflict) among both children and parents.

The children were recruited from five elementary schools in urban and rural districts in the

Netherlands. In all, 427 children completed a questionnaire. The questionnaires were

administered in the childrens regular classrooms by a trained examiner. After completingthe questionnaire the children were given a parent questionnaire to take home. A total of

360 questionnaires (84%) were returned. This resulted in a total sample of 360 parent-

child dyads with various economic backgrounds. In the sample of parent-child dyads, all

educational levels of parents were represented, although most of the parents were

relatively well educated: 25% had completed high school, 35% were college graduates,

and 28% had masters degrees. The final child sample consisted of 175 boys (48.6%) and

185 girls (51.4%). The parent sample consisted of 291 mothers and 61 fathers, and 8

parents who did not indicate their gender.

The findings of this study show that advertising is positively and directly related to

childrens purchase requests and materialism. It is also positively, though indirectly

(mediated by advertising-induced purchase requests), related to family conflict,

disappointment, and life dissatisfaction.


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Researchers found a stronger advertisingpurchase request relation for younger children

than for older children and stronger childrens purchase requests parent-child conflict

relation for younger children and for boys.Relation between purchase requests and parent-

child conflict was stronger in low-income families than in high-income families.

2.1.2. Discussion and conclusions

The presented studies were based either on parent-child questionnaires, diary,

observations, completion stories, review of previous research or an experiment. This

means that there are some important differences between the employed methods where

non-experimental methodology was predominantly used. Most of the studies are

correlational which means that they deal with relations between variables that do not

imply causality.

Some of the presented research was conducted with elementary school children and other

with kindergartners. Findings among studies about relation between parent-child conflict

occurrence and childs age are not in accordance.

In these studies, parentchild conflict has been examined in two ways. In some research,

children or parents have been asked to indicate how often they had a conflict with theother party about product purchases. In other research, parentchild conflict has been

indicated by childrens negative reactions to parental denial of a purchase request. One of

the studies is a research review study based on a vote-counting analysis that is a

formalized count of the number of studies that either produce or fail to produce

statistically significant findings in the hypothesized direction.

Galst and White (1976) study is significant to the extent that it is based on experiment and

its main finding is that television commercials are related to at least one aspect ofchildrens consumer behaviour their purchase-influencing attempts at supermarket.

Sheikh and Moleski (1977) found that 90% of all children thought that character in the

story after seeing a commercial would make a purchase request to his/her parents. 22.7%

of children said that the character would be aggressive after parental denial and 16% that


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character would be persistent. The researchers did not compute the correlation between

purchase request and occurrence of conflict.

Isler, Popper and Ward (1987) found that conflict induced by TV advertising was rare

(17% of children argued a little). They reported also type of denial, but unfortunately they

did not made correlation between type of denial and conflict occurrence.

Atkin (1975) found that conflict followed two-thirds of mothers denials of childrens

cereal requests and children expressed unhappiness one-half of the time. However, such

conflict is described as being seldom intense or persistent. Ward and Wackman (1972)

found the significant positive relationship between purchase requests (for products highly

advertised) and parent-child conflict. Buijzen and Valkenburg (2003b) found the

correlation between TV advertising exposure and purchase requests, and between TV

advertising exposure and parent-child conflict (through purchase requests). In previous

study (2003a) based on literature research, these researchers concluded that there is

correlation between TV advertising exposure and parent-child conflict but that conflict is

rather mediated by purchase requests and parental denial (frequent purchase requests relate

to frequent parental denials which, in turn relate to conflict). Robertson and al. (1989)

determined conditional relationships that can be summarized as follows: the more

demanding the child is, the greater television viewing, the more requests to parents, andthe greater the parent-child conflict; the higher the level of television viewing, the more

the requests and the greater the resulting parent-child conflict.

The only experimental study about relation between TV advertising exposure and conflict,

the study that relates cause and effect, is a study made by Goldber and Gorn (1978).

Regarding the relationship between TV advertising exposure and parent-child conflict

these researchers found significant relationship in only one from four measurements.

The most of the studies reviewed are correlational and are in agreement with the

hypothesis that there is a relationship between TV advertising exposure and parentchild

conflict. However it seems that this relationship is not direct but is mediated by childs

purchase request and parents denial.


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2.2. PARENTAL MEDIATION OF TV ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND CHILDS PURCHASE

REQUESTS

By mediation, researchers denote some form of active efforts by parents and others to

translate the complexities of the physical and social environment, as well as the television

as a medium, into terms capable of comprehension by children at various levels of

cognitive development (Desmond et al. 1985).

Parental mediation is often considered the most effective tool in management of

televisions influence on children (W.A. Donohue and Meyer 1984, cited from Buijzen

and Valkenburg 2005, 153). Accordingly, consumer behaviour researchers examined

relation between parental mediation and unintended TV advertising effects like increased

purchase requests, parent-child conflict, materialism, and childs unhappiness.

In the present study several attempts have been made to unambiguously classify the

various routes by which parents can mediate television messages. Finally, based on review

of literature on media effects and TV advertising effects (Robertson 1979; Fujioka and

Austin 2002; Buijzen and Valkenburg 2003b; Corder-Bolz 1980; Carlson, Grossbart and

Walsh 1990; Valkenburg et al. 1999), two types of parental mediation of childrens TV

advertising exposure have been identified. The first type includes intentional activities thatare parental mediation strategies specifically related to advertising. Such activities,

presented in two following sections, are (a) making restrictions on a childs TV

advertising viewing, and (b) active mediation via critical discussion of television messages

with a child. The second type includes a more subtle, often unintentional activities related

to more general family consumer communication environment (or patterns).

Last Section of this Chapter is focused on parental mediation of both childs desire for

advertised product and childs purchase requests, precisely on type of purchase denialparents make as response to childs purchase requests.


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2.2.1 Family communication environment

2.2.1.1 Literature review

Family Communication Environment sets the context for parent-child communication

about consumption and consumer learning (Moschis 1985). It is composed of two

uncorrelated dimensions of communication structure (Moore and Moschis 1981; Moschis

1985; Carlson, Grossbart, and Walsh 1990; Carlson, Walsh, Laczniak, and Grossbart

1994).

The first dimension is called socio-oriented. Parental messages characterized as socio-

oriented promote deference to parents, and monitoring and controlling of childrens

consumer behaviour. The second type of communication dimension, called concept-

oriented, reflects parental messages that encourage children to develop their own skills and

competence as consumers.

These two general dimensions of parent-child communication produce a four-fold

typology of family communication patterns that refer to the frequency, type, and quality of

communication that takes place among family members. Family communication patterns

are: protective, pluralistic, consensual and laissez-faire (Figure 2.2.1.1). Protectivefamilies are highly socio-oriented and promote deference to parents and family order, and

limit their childrens exposure to information on which to base their views. Pluralistic

families are highly concept-oriented and tend to stress issue-oriented communication and

maintain a relatively horizontal parent-child relationship. Children of pluralistic parents

are encouraged to explore ideas and express their own opinions. Laissez-faire families lack

to emphasize both dimensions of communication; there is a little parent-child

communication in these families and, as consequence, parental impact on children.

According to the Corder-Bolz (1980) when secondary socialization sources (masscommunication media) provide information in an environment in which there are no

primary socialization sources (parents, teachers, institutions, organization, groups), the

secondary socialization sources can have a direct impact upon a persons beliefs, attitudes,

and behaviour, or may reinforce certain peer values. Consensual families stress both types

of communication; they encourage children to explore ideas (concept-orientation), but


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children are constrained to develop and maintain conceptions consonant with those of their

parents (socio-orientation).

Figure 2.2.1.1. Moschis Family-communication patterns (adapted from Carlson,

Grossbart, and Walsh 1990, 28)

In the following text, a few studies that are presented investigated relationship between

parent communication patterns and parents efforts to mediate media exposure, interaction

with children, and parental yielding.

Carlson, Grossbart and Walsh (1990) conducted a study that examined parent-childcommunication patterns and mothers consumer-socialization tendencies. In order to do

so, researchers investigated relationships between mother-child communication patterns

and mothers goals for childrens consumer socialization, efforts to mediate effects of

media exposure, interaction with children, and responses to purchase requests. Self-

administrated questionnaires were distributed to mothers via children in three public

schools (grades K-6) in variety of socioeconomic areas in a moderate-sized city in USA

and 451 usable cases were retained for analysis.

Results of this study suggest that mothers communication orientations are related to

consumer socialization tendencies.

Pluralistic mothers discuss ads and coview with their children more than Laissez-faires

and Protectives; impose less control on childrens TV viewing than Consensuals; consider


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childs opinion more than Laissez-faires and Protectives; yield more than all other but

refuse both with and without explanation less often than Protectives and Consensuals.

Protective mothers discuss ads less and coview less than Pluralistics and Consensuals;

impose the same controls on childrens TV viewing like Pluralistics and Laissez-faires;

least apt to consider childs opinion; yield less than all other mothers; refuse both with and

without explanation more often than Laissez-faires and Pluralistics.

Laissez-faire mothers discuss ads less and coview less than Pluralistics and Consensuals;

control TV viewing less than Consensuals; consider childs opinion less than Pluralistics

and Consensuals but more than Protectives; yield less than Pluralistics, but more than

Consensual and Protectives; refuse both with and without explanation less often than

Protectives and Consensuals.

Consensual mothers discuss ads more and coview more than Laissez-faire and Protectives;

control viewing more than all other mothers; consider childs opinion more than Laissez-

faires and Protectives; yield more than Protectives, but less than Pluralistics and Laissez-

faires and refuse both with and without explanation more than Laisse-faires and

Pluralistics.

Findings generally confirm consistency between mothers concept-orientation and

consumer goals, discussing ads, sharing of media and shopping experiences, considering

childrens opinions, yielding to requests, and granting purchasing independence. Mother-

child discussions about ads also occur more often in the families with more educated

fathers. According to his study, yielding is more likely with sons and in families with

higher income or less-educated fathers.

Rose, Bush, and Kahle (1998), using consumer socialization as a theoretical foundation,examined cross-nationally a family communication patterns and general attitudes toward

television advertising among mothers of children three to eight year of age. The sample

was obtained from two medium-size cities, one in Japan and the other in USA. Schools

were selected to match in socioeconomic status (middle to upper middle class). The

number of usable questionnaires for analysis was 243 in Japan and 418 in USA.


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Main findings of this study are that Pluralistic and Consensual mothers have the highest

mediation (discussing TV advertising frequently) and most negative attitudes toward

advertising. Laissez-faire mothers have the most positive attitudes toward and the lowest

mediation of their childrens exposure to television advertising. Consensual mothers

reported higher levels of control of TV viewing than all other mothers. There was no

significant difference between Pluralistic and Protective mothers that maintained greater

control than Laissez-faire mothers.

Fujioka and Austin (2002) examined the relationship between reported family

communication patterns and parental mediation styles. A telephone survey (n = 216) was

conducted with parents of third-, sixth-, and ninth-graders in two Washington state

communities, USA. Those parents (60% women, 40% men) whose child had completed an

in-class survey prior to the phone survey were asked to participate in the study using a

randomization procedure to obtain male and female respondents. The study obtained a

78% response rate. The survey indicated that 62% of the respondents had completed

college. The respondents family income was relatively higher than the state median

income.

To investigate the links between general family communication norms and television-

specific behaviors, this study tested hypothesized relationships between familycommunication patterns constructs and parental mediation strategies, coviewing, and the

use of the new television ratings system.

As hypothesized, concept orientation predicted parents frequent use of both negative

mediation (counter-reinforcement of television messages) and of positive mediation

(endorsement of television messages) as well as frequent discussion of issues more

generally.

No relationship was predicted or found between socio orientation and discussion-oriented

behaviour such as negative mediation or general discussion of issues.

The recent study conducted by Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005) is presented in the next

section. The main finding of this study is that concept-oriented consumer communication


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is more related than socio-oriented consumer communication to both less childrens

purchase requests and less parent-child conflict induced by TV advertising exposure. In

addition, authors discus congruence between concept-orientation and active mediation as

well as between socio-orientation and restrictive mediation.

2.2.1.2. Discussion and conclusions with propositions for the current study

The presented studies used surveying as a research method. Only Buijzen and Valkenburg

(2005) study included parent-children responses, while all other studies are based on

parental reports only. All studies but Fujioka and Austin (2002) study dealt with TV

advertising, which examined relationship between parental communication patterns and

mediation strategies used. Carlson, Grossbart and Walsh (1990) and Rose, Bush, and

Kahle (1998) study included parents of kindergartners, while other two studies included

parents of elementary school children. However, analysed studies bring to congruent

conclusions.

According to the studies reviewed, Pluralistic and Consensual mothers use active TV

advertising mediation strategies and active mediation in general, more than Protective and

Laissez-faire mothers. In addition, more than all other mothers consider childs opinion.

Consensual mothers are most restrictive among all other mothers. Pluralistic mothers yieldmore than all other mothers. Protective mothers are least apt to childs opinion.

It seems plausible that patterns of parental communication affect the extent to which a

parent makes use of restrictive or active mediation strategies. According to Buijzen and

Valkenburg (2005, 162) active mediation and concept-oriented communication are

conceptually related, as are restrictive and socio-oriented communication. According to

these authors active mediation and concept-oriented communication are both focused on

family discussions and increasing childrens understanding and autonomy, whereasrestrictive mediation and socio-oriented communication are mainly focused on protecting

children from advertising.

Based on this literature review, evidence is significant to enable formulation of specific

hypothesis:


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H1: Concept-oriented parents are apt to use active TV advertising mediation strategy,

while socio-oriented parents are apt to use restrictive TV advertising mediation strategy.

There are two facts, which emerge from this part of literature review, that should be

further investigated and that are considered in last section of this chapter:

Socio-oriented (Protective and Consensual) mothers deny purchase requests with

explanation more often than Pluralistic and Laissez-faire mothers.

Concept-oriented (Pluralistic and Consensual mothers) parental communication is related

to less purchase requests and less parent-child conflict.

Since the concept-oriented parents are more apt to discussion with children, it seems

plausible that they are also more likely to interpret and explain their purchase denial to

their children, which might be, in turn, related to less child-parent conflict (see Isler,

Popper and Ward (1987) in Section 2.1.1.).

2.2.2 Active and restrictive parental mediation of childs TV advertising exposure

2.2.2.1. Literature review

The advertising mediation literature has so far identified two strategies that parents use to

mediate childrens TV advertising exposure: active and restrictive advertising mediation

(Wiman 1983; Carlson, Grossbart and Walsh 1990; Buijzen and Valkenburg 2003b,

2005).

Active mediation (or instructive, or evaluative mediation) includes making conscious

comments and judgments about television commercials and actively explaining the natureand selling intent of advertising, either during or after viewing.

Restrictive mediation (or rule making mediation) involves protecting children from TV

advertising by reducing their exposure to it. This type of mediation may include family

rules restricting childrens viewing of commercial television channels. It has been argued


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that because young children lack the cognitive abilities to resist commercial messages,

reducing their exposure to television may sometimes be the only effective way to

counteract its negative effects (Robinson et al., 2001).

The research on parental TV advertising mediation strategies is very scarce. Few studies

that have investigated parental advertising mediation strategies have focused on their

relation with childrens understanding of TV advertising (Wiman 1983), their attitudes

toward advertising (Wiman 1983), their requests for advertised products (Ward and

Wackman 1972; Wiman 1983; Robinson et al. 2001; Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005), and

parent-child conflict induced by TV advertising exposure (Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005).

Those studies are presented in the text that follows.

In Wimans study (1983), parental influence on third and fourth graders cognitive,

attitudinal and behavioural responses to TV advertising was explored in structured

personal interviews with 222 children and their parents. The purpose of this research was

to explore the role of parents in establishing the environment within which children

encounter and respond to television advertising. The dimensions of parental influence

addressed were the frequency of parent-child interactions about TV advertising and

commercials, and parental control of the childs television viewing habits. Interviews were

conducted with children and their parents simultaneously in the respondents homes,Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

The findings suggest that children whose parents consider themselves as more strictly

controlling their childs viewing behaviour have more negative attitudes toward television

advertising. That is, parents with more negative attitude toward television advertising

reported stronger efforts to control their childs viewing. These children also exhibit a

better understanding of the purpose and nature of TV advertising and are from a higher

socioeconomic level and have better educated parents. Finally, the data suggest that thesechildren make fewer purchase requests to their parents. It would appear, then, that parents

who make more of an effort to exercise control over how much and what type of television

their children watch are establishing an atmosphere which is more critical of commercials

and which discourages purchase requests. At the same time, it seems to be an atmosphere

that is conducive to learning about advertising.


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It was found that children who talk with their parents more frequently about TV

advertising and commercials make more purchase requests and tend to have attitudes

about TV advertising which are further removed from those of their parents than do

children who interact less frequently.

Author suggested that It may be that both frequent verbal exchanges about TV

advertising and frequent purchase requests are associated with an environment which is

characterized by a freer flow of discussion with fewer constraints. If more frequent

interaction is indicative of a more open environment with a free flow of ideas, then the gap

between the attitudes of parents and children might be result of more independent thinking

and expression on the part of the children (17). Although the author for this conclusion

says that is suggestive and that it needs further examination, his conclusion is congruent

with characteristics of highly concept-oriented families.

Robinson et al (2001) tested the effects of a classroom intervention to reduce television,

videotape, and video game use on children's toy purchase requests, in a school-based

randomized controlled trial. Third- and fourth-grade children (mean age, 8.9 years) in two

sociodemographically and scholastically matched public elementary schools were entitled

to participate, in San Jose, CA, USA. The sample contained 88 children and 66 parents in

the intervention school, and 87 children and 75 parents in the control school.

Children in only intervention elementary school received a 18-lesson, 6-month classroom

curriculum to reduce television, videotape, and video game use. Lessons included self-

monitoring and reporting of television, videotape, and video game use to motivate children

to reduce the time they spent in these activities. These lessons were followed by a TV

turnoff during which children were challenged to watch no television or videotapes and

play no video games for 10 days. After the turnoff, children were encouraged to follow a

7hr/wk budget. Newsletters were sent home to motivate parents to help children staywithin their budgets and suggested strategies for limiting television, videotape, and

videogame use for the entire family. This intervention targeted media use and did not

attempt to teach critical viewing skills or antiadvertising knowledge and attitudes.


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In both schools, in September (before intervention) and April (after intervention) of a

single school year, children and parents reported children's prior week's purchase requests

for toys seen on television. After intervention, children in the intervention school were

significantly less likely to report toy purchase requests than children in the control school.

Among intervention school children, reductions in self-reported purchase requests were

also associated with reductions in television viewing. However, there was no significant

difference between schools in parent reports of children's requests for toy purchases,

which authors explain by small sample of parents who participated in interviews.

Study made by Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005), which is a second part of the study made

previously (2003b) by the same researchers, investigated which types of parental

mediation are most effective in counteracting potentially undesirable advertising effects.

In a parent-child survey, authors investigate how various types of parental mediation

affect the influence of television advertising on materialism, purchase requests, and

parent-child conflict. To measure parent-child conflict about purchase requests children

were asked how often there was a conflict after denial of a purchase request for four

product types.

360 parentchild dyads participated in a survey. Children were from 8 to 12 years of age.

All participants were recruited from five elementary schools in urban and rural districts inthe Netherlands. The questionnaires were administered in the childrens regular

classrooms by a trained examiner. After completing the questionnaire, which took about

25 minutes, the children were given a parent questionnaire to take home.

Authors investigated how different styles of advertising mediation (active vs. restrictive)

and family consumer communication (concept-oriented vs. socio-oriented) moderated the

relations between the childrens advertising exposure and their materialism, purchase

requests, and conflicts with their parents. The results showed that active advertisingmediation and concept-oriented consumer communication were related negatively to the

occurrence of unintended effects of advertising. The use of restrictive mediation did not

significantly influence relationship between advertising exposure and purchase requests

and between purchase requests and parent-child conflict. In contrast, active mediation

significantly made those relationships weaker.


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There is a study made by Ward and Wackman (1972), described in Section 2.1., were

researchers found no significant relationship between restriction of TV viewing and

purchase requests. But, the more restrictions parents place on a childs television viewing,

the less they yield to his/her purchase influence attempts. In addition, Robertson et al.

(1989) found that there is no relationship between parental restrictiveness and childs

demanding (the more demanding the child is, the greater television viewing, the more

requests to parents, and the greater the parent-child conflict).

2.2.2.2. Discussion and conclusions with propositions for the current study

The presented studies were based on parent-child self reports, interviews, or questionnaire.

The research was made with elementary school children (third and fourth graders) and is

questionable if the main finding can be assigned to kindergartners.

The three studies included restriction of childs TV viewing in general (Ward and

Wackman 1972; Wiman 1983; Robinson et al 2001) while the fourth one included

restriction of TV advertising viewing also (Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005).

Three studies are based on parental mediation. The Robinson et al. study (2001) included

teachers mediation and invitation to parents to participate in restrictions when childrenare at home.

Main findings between reviewed studies differ. Two studies came to conclusion that

restrictive mediation strategy is related to less frequent purchase requests induced by TV

advertising, one study concluded that active mediation strategy is related to both less

frequent purchase requests and less parent-child conflict and one study did not find

significant relationship between TV viewing restriction and purchase requests. However,

in the study made by Robinson et al. (2001), that came to conclusion that restrictivemediation strategy is related to less frequent purchase requests, parental reports of

childrens purchase requests in experimental and control group did not differ. Robertson et

al. (1989) found that there is no relationship between parental restrictiveness and

demanding nature of the child.


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Thus far, only one study has investigated relation between mediation and parentchild

conflict (Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005). The two studies that investigate correlation of

active versus restrictive mediation on childrens behaviour arrived at opposite conclusions.

Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005) concluded that active mediation was the mediation style

related to less childs purchase requests and less parent-child conflict, whereas Wiman

(1983) found that restrictive mediation was the strategy related to less childs purchase

requests.

As conclusion, the research findings on how active and restrictive mediation relate to

childs purchase requests are indecisive, and in the case of the parent-child conflict, there

is only one study (Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005). There is a need to investigate and

compare how the two styles of advertising mediation strategies relate to childrens

purchase requests and parentchild conflict. Earlier research evidence was indecisive to

enable formulation of specific hypotheses. The following research question was

investigated:

RQ1: Is any of TV advertising mediation strategies, active or restrictive, strongly related

to occurrence of purchase requests and parent-child conflict?

2.2.3 Parental mediation of childs product desire and purchase request induced byTV advertising

2.2.3.1. Literature review

Few studies that are presented in this section focus on mothers mediation of childs

product desire and purchase intent or request. It seems, according to the literature

reviewed, that type of mothers purchase denial is related to the occurrence of the parent-

child conflict. According to this assumption, mothers reasoning accompanied byexplanation and interpretation of her orientation should correlate with less parent-child

conflict.

Experimental study made by Prasad, Rao and Sheikh (1978) about relationship of the

persuasive power of mothers and television commercials involved 64 boys aged 8 to 10


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years. Although the sample was small, and age and gender specific, this study was one of

the first to suggest that parent can counteract, to some degree, the influence of childrens

television commercials through the use of reasoning comments.

The boys were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions: No

Counter-Information (neutral), Power Assertive Counter-Information or Reasoning

Counter-Information and exposed to the educational documentary that included

commercials about one particular toy. One toy appeared in commercial that was more

attractive than the commercial for the other toy, although toys themselves were equally

attractive. One half of the children watched the documentary with the attractive

commercial, other half the one with less attractive commercial. Each boy was alone and

observed while watching TV in the room with one-way mirror.

At the same time mothers were trained to offer negative counter-information about the

TV advertised product to their child in either a reasoning manner or a power assertive

manner. The researchers do not describe the difference between power assertive and

reasoning except that previous research had shown that children showed a higher

resistance to temptation when treated in a warm and reasoning manner as opposed to a

power-assertive one.

After viewing the documentary, boys played a game in order to win the coins to make

purchase in simulated toy store, in which beside unadvertised toys were also advertised

ones.

The researchers noted that both types of counter-information increased the time it took

each child to deliberate about purchasing the product. However, in all thee conditions, the

boys chose the toy from attractive commercial over any unadvertised toy. In the case of

less attractive commercial, accompanied by mothers comments using the reasoningcondition, most of the boys chose unadvertised toy and complied with mothers advice. In

the case when less attractive commercial was accompanied by mothers power-assertive

comments, three-fourths of the boys went against their mothers advice. In the neutral

condition the same percentage of children chose the advertised and the unadvertised toy.

The researchers noted that appears that when a product in commercial is perceived as


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being only moderately attractive, the type of maternal counter-information is a very

relevant variable. A reasoning technique leads the children to comply with maternal

advice, whereas the power assertive method elicits a negativistic response and induces the

children to give even more weight to the commercial than in absence of any counter-

influence.

These findings show that children show greater resistance to temptation when they are

dealt with in a reasonable manner and considerably lower resistance when they are treated

in a power-assertive fashion.

However, it appears that when a product in question appears highly attractive in a

commercial or when temptation level is very high, all forms of counter-influence fail.

Experimental study made by Goldberg and Gorn (1978) showed that when children were

told that their mother expressed the preference for the ball (and not for advertised toy),

79% of control group accepted her judgment and expressed that they liked the ball too. In

the case of the experimental group that saw commercial, 54% of children followed their

mother judgment and chose unadvertised toy that was preferred by their mother.

The data from diary study made by Isler, Popper and Ward (1987) suggest that reasoningtechnique used by mothers lead the children to comply with maternal negative response on

childs purchase requests. Author made conclusion that there were not many parent-child

conflicts, but very important data that was not examined by the author is that among all

denials made by mother to childs purchase requests, 42% was accompanied by

explanation and 40% by response maybe sometimes. For TV advertising induced

requests, mothers said no, and explained why in 31 % and maybe sometimes in 55% of

cases.

2.2.3.2 Discussion and conclusions with propositions for the current study

Presented literature review shows also in this case use of various research methods.

Prasad, Rao and Sheikh (1978) and Goldberg and Gorn (1978) have made experimental

studies; Isler, Popper and Ward (1987) made a diary study; while studies made by Carlson,


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Grossbart, and Walsh (1990) and Buijzen and Valkenburg study (2005) employed survey.

All studies except two (Prasad, Rao and Sheikh 1978; Buijzen and Valkenburg 2005)

included kindergartners. In addition, Carlson, Grossbart, and Walsh (1990) and Isler,

Popper and Ward (1987) studies were based only on mothers self-reports. These issues

might interfere in validity of assumption that is based on results gathered from a literature

review.

As previously noted, the child must normally make a purchase request to his parents who

yield or deny it. Parental response may be accompanied by positive instruction of the child

about the marketplace or may result in conflict. Carlson, Grossbart, and Walsh (1990)

study ex

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