Parental Style and Consumer Socialization of Children

Abstract

Parents play a major role in children's consumer socialization but little is known about differences in parents' consumer socialization tendencies. In this article, we examine the thesis that these tendencies can be predicted from parents' general socialization styles. Results indicate that mothers with alternative parental styles differ in communicating with children about consumption, number of consumer socialization goals, restricting and monitoring consumption and media exposure, and views on advertising. Contrary to expectations, mothers with differential styles do not differ in granting consumption autonomy to children.