Childrení skepticism toward television advertising

Abstract

The aims of this work were to explore whether children exhibit skepticism toward televsion advertising and to examine the possible influence of socialization agents such as family, peers, and media on children's skepticism toward television advertising using socialization theory as a framework. Skepticism was defined as a tendency to disbelieve advertising claims. Advertising skepticism was conceptualized as an outcome of a socialization process. Specifically, the study investigated whether children from 8 to 12 years of age exhibit skepticism toward advertisng. Additionally, parents' skepticism, the type of family communication (socio-oriented versus concept-oriented communication), children's susceptibility to peer influence (susceptibility to informational versus normative peer influence), and the extent of television viewing were investigated regarding the relationship to children's skepticism toward television advertising. In order to shed light on the relationship among these variables, children's market knowledge was assessed as a possible mediator of the effects of socialization agents on children's skepticism. Demographic data (age, gender, type of school, socioeconomic status, number of children, birth order, amount of allowance, and source of the money) were also investigated as possible covariates of skepticism toward television advertising. Two studies were conducted with children from 8 to 12 years old and their parents. In Study 1 participants were 221 children, and in Study 2 participants were 662 children and 251 parents. The results shown evidence of increasing skepticism toward advertising in children from 8 to 12 years of age. A significant relationship was found between television viewing behavior and children's skepticism toward television advertising. To our knowledge this is the first study of children's skepticism toward advertising conducted in Mexico.