Abstract
Across industrialized nations, children and teens are a highly prized target for the advertising industry because young people have a tremendous influence on family purchases; however, media scholars have long suggested that young people are a fundamentally vulnerable audience because they lack the necessary developmental competencies to adequately process and protect themselves from advertising communications. Yet, the precise developmental mechanisms have not been clearly articulated nor is there a clear understanding of how these competencies extend across childhood contexts (e.g., developmental phase, cultures). The current study seeks to lend clarity to this matter by looking at the potential influence that children’s executive function and emotion regulation have on the relationship between television exposure (as a proxy of exposure to advertising messages and other consumption-oriented media content) and consumer behavior across a broad range of ages from two wealthy industrialized countries. Mothers of young elementary school children (5–8 years) and early adolescents (9–12 years) in the Netherlands (N = 333, 51.7% female child) and the United States of America (N = 810, 49.6% female child) took part in an online survey to report on their child’s cognitive/affective development, media use, and consumer behavior (i.e., purchase requests, purchase related conflict). The results showed that across ages, executive function via attentional shifting moderated the link between purchase requests and purchase conflict, whereas positively valenced emotion regulation moderated the same relationship but only for older children. Lastly, the findings revealed that while there are differences in reported behavior among children in these two countries, the developmental processes tend to work in the same manner. The discussion focuses on what these findings mean for children’s consumer development as they approach adolescence and how researchers and child advocates should take these developmental factors into account when considering children’s potential vulnerability as consumers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, P. (2002). Assessment and development of Executive Function (EF) during childhood. Child Neuropsychology, 8(2), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.8.2.71.8724.
Basu, R., & Sondhi, N. (2014). Child socialization practices: implications for retailers in emerging markets. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21, 797–803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.06.008.
Bauman, K., & Ryan, C. (2015). Women now at the head of the class, lead men in college attainment. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2015/10/women-now-at-the-head-of-the-class-lead-men-in-college-attainment.html.
Best, J. R., & Miller, P. H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child Development, 81(6), 1641–1660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01499.x.
Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2003a). The effects of television advertising on materialism, parent–child conflict, and unhappiness: a review of research. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 437–456.
Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2003b). The unintended effects of television advertising: a parent-child survey. Communication Research, 30(5), 483–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650203256361.
Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2008). Observing purchase-related parent-child communication in retail environments: a developmental and socialization perspective. Human Communication Research, 34, 50–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00313.x.
Buijzen, M., van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Owen, L. H. (2010). Introducing the PCMC model: an investigative framework for young people’s processing of commercialized media content. Communication Theory, 20, 427–450. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2010.01370.x.
Bunge, S. A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2006). A brain-based account of the development of rule use in childhood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(3), 118–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00419.x.
Calkins, S. D., & Hill, A. (2007). The emergence of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral transactions in early development. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 229–248). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Calkins, S. D., & Marcovitch, S. (2010). Emotion regulation and executive functioning in early development: integrated mechanisms of control supporting adaptive functioning. In S. D. Calkins & M. A. Bell (Eds), Human brain development: child development at the intersection of emotion and cognition (pp. 37–57). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Calvert, S. L. (2008). Children as consumers: advertising and marketing. Future of Children, 18(1), 205–234. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.0.0001.
Carlson, S. M. (2005). Developmentally sensitive measures of executive function in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28(2), 595–616.
Carlson, S. M., & Wang, T. S. (2007). Inhibitory control and emotion regulation in preschool children. Cognitive Development, 22(4), 489–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.08.002.
Casey, B. J., Tottenham, N., Liston, C., & Durston, S. (2005). Imaging the developing brain: what have we learned about cognitive development? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(3), 104–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.01.011.
Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75(2), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00673.x.
Cross, G. (2000). An all-consuming century: Why commercialism won in modern America. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Diamond, A. (2013). Exectuve functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750.Executive.
Diamond, A., & Lee, K. (2011). Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old. Science, 333(6045), 959–964. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1204529.
Dixon, M. L., Thiruchselvam, R., Todd, R., & Christoff, K. (2017). Emotion and the prefrontal cortex: an integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(10), 1033–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000096.
Etkin, A., Büchel, C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The neural bases of emotion regulation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(11), 693–700. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn4044.
Eurostat. (2019). Mean age of women at childbirth and at birth of first child. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tps00017/default/table?lang=en.
Gioia, G. A., Isquith, P. K., Retzlaff, P. D., & Espy, K. A. (2002). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) in a clinical sample. Child Neuropsychology, 8(4), 249–257. https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.8.4.249.13513.
Goodman, J. K., Cryder, C. E., & Cheema, A. (2013). Data collection in a flat world: the strengths and weaknesses of Mechanical Turk samples. Journal of Behavioral Decison Making, 26(3), 213–224.
Graziano, P. A., Reavis, R. D., Keane, S. P., & Calkins, S. D. (2007). The role of emotion regulation in children’s early academic success. Journal of School Psychology, 45(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2006.09.002.
Greenberg, M. T., Kusche, C. A., Cook, E. T., & Quamma, J. P. (1995). Promoting emotional competence in school-aged children: the effects of the PATHS curriculum. Development and Psychopathology, 7(1), 117–136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579400006374.
Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781.
Gunter, B., Oates, C., & Blades, M. (2004). Advertising to children on TV. New York, NY: Routledge.
John, D. R. (1999). Consumer socialization of children: a retrospective look at twenty-five years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(3), 183–213. https://doi.org/10.1086/209559.
John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2004). Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: personality processes, individual differences, and life span development. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1301–1334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00298.x.
Kelly, B., Halford, J. C. G., Boyland, E. J., Chapman, K., Bautista-Castaño, I., Berg, C., & Summerbell, C. (2010). Television food advertising to children: a global perspective. American Journal of Public Health, 100(9), 1730–1736. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.179267.
Kerr, A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2004). Development of “hot” executive function: the children’s gambling task. Brain and Cognition, 55(1), 148–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-2626(03)00275-6.
Krcmar, M., Lapierre, M. A., Hoxie, A., & Colvett, J. (2017). Observing parent-child purchase related interactions in US-based retail environments: replication and extension. Journal of Children and Media, 11(3), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2017.1303524.
Kunkel, D., Wilcox, B. L., Cantor, J., Palmer, E., Linn, S., & Dowrick, P. (2004). Psychological issues in the increasing commercialization of childhood. In Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children (pp. 20–54). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads_implications.pdf.
Lapierre, M. A. (2016). Emotion regulation and young children’s consumer behavior. Young Consumers, 17(2), 168–182. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-11-2015-00566.
Lapierre, M. A. (2019). Advertising literacy and executive function: testing their influence on children’s consumer behavior. Media Psychology, 22(1), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2017.1345638.
Lapierre, M. A., & Rozendaal, E. (2018). Cross-national differences in consumer socialization, development, and behavior: a comparison of children in the United States and the Netherlands. Journal of Children and Media, 12(4), 388–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2018.1474481.
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B. A., & McPherson, K. (2015). Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture. The Lancet, 385(9986), 2510–2520. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61746-3.
Mathews, T. J., & Hamilton, B. E. (2016). Mean age of mothers is on the rise: United States, 2000–2014. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db232.pdf.
Matthews, D. (2017). University gender gap emerges in Netherlands. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-gender-gap-emerges-netherlands.
McAlister, A. R., & Cornwell, B. B. (2010). Children’s brand symbolism understanding: links to theory of mind and executive functioning. Psychology & Marketing, 27(3), 203–228. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20328.
McNeal, J. U. (2007). On becoming a consumer: the development of consumer behavior patterns in childhood. 1st ed New York, NY: Butterworth-Heinemann.
McRae, K., Gross, J. J., Weber, J., Robertson, E. R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R. D., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr093.
Moses, L. J., & Baldwin, D. A. (2005). What can the study of cognitive development reveal about children’s ability to appreciate and cope with advertising? Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24(2), 186–201. https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.2005.24.2.186.
Nairn, A., & Fine, C. (2008). Who’s messing with my mind? The implications of dual-process models for the ethics of advertising to children. International Journal of Advertising, 27(3), 447–470.
OECD. (2011). Doing better for families. http://www.oecd.org/els/family/47710686.pdf.
Okazaki, S., & Mueller, B. (2007). Cross-cultural advertising research: where we have been and where we need to go. International Marketing Review, 24(5), 499–518. https://doi.org/10.1108/02651330710827960.
Opree, S. J. (2014). Consumed by consumer culture? Advertising’s impact on children’s materialism and life satisfaction. University of Amsterdam. https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2019603/135556_11.pdf.
Opree, S. J., Buijzen, M., van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2014). Children’s advertising exposure, advertised product desire, and materialism: a longitudinal study. Communication Research, 41(5), 717–735. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650213479129.
Roberto, C. A., Baik, J., Harris, J. L., & Brownell, K. D. (2010). Influence of licensed characters on children’s taste and snack preferences. Pediatrics, 126(1), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-3433.
Rose, G. M., Dalakas, V., & Kropp, F. (2003). Consumer socialization and parental style across cultures: findings from Australia, Greece, and India. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(4), 366–376.
Rozendaal, E., Lapierre, M. A., van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Buijzen, M. (2011). Reconsidering advertising literacy as a defense against advertising effects. Media Psychology, 14(4), 333–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2011.620540.
Rozendaal, E, van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Buijzen, M. (2019). Children’s understanding of persuasion. In: R. Hobbs & P. Mihailidis, (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy. (pp. 1–6). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Rydell, A.-M., Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G. (2003). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and adaption among 5- to 8- year old children. Emotion, 3(1), 30–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.30.
Slater, M. D. (2004). Operationalizing and analyzing exposure: the foundation of media effects research. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(1), 168–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100112.
Stuss, D. T. (2011). Functions of the frontal lobes: relation to executive functions. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17(5), 759–765. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617711000695.
Taylor, C. R. (2005). Moving international advertising research forwar: a new research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 34(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2005.10639187.
Valkenburg, P. M., & Cantor, J. (2001). The development of a child into a consumer. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(00)00066-6.
Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2013). The differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 63(2), 221–243. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12024.
Valkenburg, P. M., & Piotrowski, J. T. (2017). Plugged in: how media attract and affect youth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
van de Vijver, F., & Tanzer, N. K. (2004). Bias and equivalence in cross-cultural assessment: an overview. Revue Europeenne de Psychologie Appliquee, 54(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2003.12.004.
Wackman, D. B., & Wartella, E. (1977). A review of cognitive development theory and research and the implications for research on children’s responses to television. Communication Research, 6(2), 203–225.
Warren, R., Wicks, R. H., Wicks, J. L., Fosu, I., & Chung, D. (2008). Food and beverage advertising on U.S. television: a comparison of child-targeted versus general audience commercials. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 52(2), 231–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150801992037.
White, M. C. (2013). American families increasingly let kids make buying decisions. Time. Retrieved from http://business.time.com/2013/04/11/american-families-increasingly-let-kids-make-buying-decisions/.
Wicks, J. L., Warren, R., Fosu, I., & Wicks, R. H. (2009). Dual-modality disclaimers, emotional appeals, and production techniques in food advertising airing during programs rated for children. Journal of Advertising, 38(4), 93–105. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367380407.
Zelazo, P. D., & Carlson, S. M. (2012). Hot and cool executive function in childhood and adolescence: development and plasticity. Child Development Perspectives, 6(4), 354–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00246.x.
Zelazo, P. D., Müller, U., Frye, D., Marcovitch, S., Argitis, G., Boseovski, J., & Sutherland, A. (2003). The development of executive function in early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 68(3), vii–137.
Author Contributions
ML and ER jointly conceived of the study and its design, participated in the coordination of the study, conducted the data analysis, and drafted the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Data Sharing and Declaration
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in the current were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (University of Arizona Institutional Review Board; protocol number: 15-027-COMM) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lapierre, M.A., Rozendaal, E. A Cross-National Study Examining the Role of Executive Function and Emotion Regulation in the Relationship between Children’s Television Exposure and Consumer Behavior. J Youth Adolescence 48, 1980–2004 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01119-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01119-7