The Role of Family Communication in Consumer Learning

Abstract

One of the most important factors in the child's acquisition of consumer skills, knowledge, and attitudes is believed to be intrafamily communication about consumption (4, 10, 23). But rather than simply being linked to the quantity of interaction, effective consumer learning has also been found to be closely tied to the patterns or quality of communication that takes place within the home (12, 13). This is in line with family communication patterns (FCP) research in political socialization, where patterns have been found to have a more significant influence than frequency or amount of parent-child interaction (7). Two relatively uncorrelated dimensions of communication structure typically emerge: socio-orientation, characterized by parental messages intended to promote deference and to foster harmonious and pleasant social relationships between parent and child; and concept-orientation, emphasizing positive constraints that enable the child to develop his or her own views about the world. The two general dimensions of parent-to-child communication produce a four-fold typology of family communication patterns:laissez-faire, protectiue, pluralistic, and consensual.Laissez-faire parents engage in neither socio-orientation nor conceptorientation type of communication. In fact, little parent-child communication occurs in these families. Protective parents stress obedience and 43 Journal of Communication, Autumn 1981 social harmony in their communication with their child and show little concern with conceptual matters. Pluralistic parents encourage open communication and discussion of ideas without insisting on obedience to authority. The child is encouraged to explore new ideas and express them without fear of retaliation. There is an emphasis on mutual respect and interests. Finally, consensual parents stress both types of communication and the child is encouraged to take an interest in the world of ideas, as long as the family's hierarchy of opinion and internal harmony are not disturbed.These communication patterns appear to affect the child's ability to cope with various situations encountered outside the immediate family such as public affairs, school activities, mass media use, and political learning (1, 2, 7). Consumer learning, like political learning, may be directly influenced by parent-child communication and indirectly influenced through socialization agents such as the mass media, which appear to be a significant source of consumer information (4, 21).

Growing up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents

“…Materialism has long been of interest to consumer researchers, but research has centered on adult consumers, not on children or teens. A small flurry of research appeared in the 1970s that found materialism in adolescents to be correlated with factors such as ineffective family communication patterns, greater peer communication, and higher levels of television viewing (Churchill and Moschis 1979;Moore and Moschis 1981;Moschis and Churchill 1978;Moschis and Moore 1979). Since then, only a handful of consumer behavior articles on the topic have appeared, finding higher levels of materialism in young consumers with materialistic parents (Goldberg et al 2003), disrupted families (Rindfleisch, Burroughs, and Denton 1997;Roberts, Tanner, and Manolis 2005), less affluent households (Goldberg et al 2003), and greater susceptibility to influence from peers and marketing promotions (Achenreiner 1997;Goldberg et al 2003).…”

Materialismo de adolescentes de uma cidade do sul do Brasil

“…Nesta área, encontramse resultados conflitantes na literatura. Alguns estudos com adolescentes assinalam uma diminuição dos níveis de materialismo relacionada ao aumento da idade; outros concluem que o materialismo é um traço que se mantém estável ao longo do desenvolvimento, não sendo possível apontar diferenças significativas entre a adolescência inicial e final (Chaplin & Jon, 2007;Goldberg et al, 2003;Moore & Moschis, 1981;Schaefer et al, 2004).…”

The Mediating Role of Values on Environmentally Responsible Consumption Awareness

“…Since family is the first place where social environment for modelling is formed, parents have an important role in bringing the next generation consumption attitudes. Previous literature emphasizes the effect of the mother"s consumption attitudes and behaviors on the child"s (Moore and Moschis, 1981). The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of parents on the individual"s environmentally responsible consumption awareness.…”

“…Thus, family has an important role in upbringing the next generation as responsible and environmentally conscious consumers (Moore and Moschis, 1981). Especially mothers have a powerful impact on raising environmentalists and conscious children (Moore and Stephens, 1975).…”