From pushchairs to wheelchairs: understanding tensions in family decision making through the experiences of adult children caring for ageing parents

Abstract

Within a modern family life, roles have changed significantly; however, relatively little attention has been given to the increased health and longevity of parents. This article focuses on the tensions relating to the transitional role of parent as ‘carer of the child’ to child as ‘carer of the parent’ as parents age. This article focuses on the experiences of adult children as they care for their parents and the related tensions that emerge and coping strategies that are adopted. Adopting an interpretive approach we shed light on the decision-making practices around shopping, residential arrangements and other consumer choices and how they take place in complex arenas of intricate family interactions, influence and power. Key themes that emerged were strategies adopted by both the adult child and ageing parent to attain or retain control in an increasingly sensitive environment where there is no roadmap to guide either party.     

Interpersonal Orientation of Spouses and Household Purchase Decisions: The Case of Restaurants

Buyer Behaviour does not occur in isolation, but within a larger social context. The family being a social unit, its members are constantly influenced by a number of external agencies, including peers, friends and relatives. This paper investigates how interpersonal orientation of spouses affects their roles, children's and others' roles in five sub-decisions of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Data were collected from young, educated couples of Singapore, who, due to their affluence and spending power are the focus of marketers in the region. Interpersonal Orientation was measured by 'Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence', as proposed by Bearden, Netemeyer and Teel [1989]. Results showed that interpersonal orientation of spouses is an important determinant of their influence in the decision of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Also, children and 'others' were seen to play negligible roles in the service sub-decisions. Implications for restaurant marketers are discussed.     

Education and the empowerment of women in household decision‐making in Spain

It was analysed whether investment in the education of both women and men serves to empower wives resulting in more balanced household decisions being taken on matters related to consumption and financial management. They considered that household decision‐making could be made by mainly the wife, mainly the husband or the couple acting jointly. They then applied multinomial probit models to the Spanish Living Conditions Survey of 2010. Results show that, when controlling for demographic, family and labour market characteristics, the level of education of both the husband and wife has a positive effect in terms of a more egalitarian decision‐making process in relation to three areas of expenditure: daily shopping, expensive purchases of consumer durables and significant expenditure on children. However, only women's education has a positive effect on borrowing money and no effect of education is observed with regard to the use of savings. Results are less conclusive for households where decisions are taken primarily by the wife or husband, since men's education increases the role of husbands in the household making‐decision process whereas no effect of wives' education is observed.     

Peer socialisation: brand-related bullying in the school classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper details a study of brand-related bullying in a school setting, among children approximately 11–18 years of age during their schooling experience. Defined as ‘repeated oppression, psychological or physical, of a less powerful person by a more powerful one’, authors have found self-reported rates of bullying above 25%. Our goal was to assess the role of brands and branded products in violent peer socialisation through bullying. Depth interviews lasting between 45 and 90 minutes that captured the retrospective reflection of forty-one 18–20-year-old college students were conducted and data were analysed hermeneutically with iterative comparison to discover emerging themes. Our findings suggest branded products were used to maintain existing social hierarchical structures and exclude non-conforming students through both covert and overt violence. We describe the influence strategies used and address strategies for dealing with the ‘unusual’, including the adoption of an alternative aesthetic for clothing selection.     

Husband-wife innovative consumer decision making: Exploring the effect of family power

The study investigates the effect of one component of spousal influence—family power—on the innovative consumer decisions perceived to be made independently by one's mate. Information was gathered via a questionnaire by personally contacting a sample of 71 married couples. The hypothesis tested was that a wife, by virtue of her greater relative exercise of family power, exerts a high degree of influence over the innovative consumer decisions made by her husband. Specifically, it was hypothesized that a wife will have more influence over the choices perceived to be made by her husband than will he. The results supported the hypothesis.     

Caring for her: the influence of presumed influence on female consumers’ attitudes towards advertising featuring gender-stereotyped portrayals

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how presumed influence on others affects women's evaluations of advertising featuring gender stereotypes. Previous research has largely overlooked the social context of the reactions to gender stereotypes. Addressing that gap, this study draws on the influence of presumed influence model to proposed that female consumers believe that other women are negatively affected by advertising that contains gender-stereotyped portrayals. This perception is hypothesized to influence ad and brand attitudes as consumers ‘punish’ the brand for hurting others. The results of two experimental studies featuring stereotyped and non-stereotyped advertising portrayals indicate that the hypothesis holds for two types of stereotype components (physical characteristics and role behaviour). This new theoretical perspective to the literature on gender stereotypes in advertising, one that helps to explain why many women dislike gender stereotypes in advertising even though those stereotypes often have limited impact on them personally.     

Everyday dramas of conscience: navigating identity through creative neutralisations

ABSTRACT

The paper seeks to recuperate autonomy within debates around identity as the discursive construction of self through exploring the ‘greening’ of intensive mothering discourse and the emergence of new subject positions and practices of accountability. It argues that facets of ideologies of ethical and sustainable consumption are inscribed within this discourse, authorising identity work and furnishing everyday provisioning routines with significance and urgency; and that related social practices that are marked for ‘greening’ diligence or negligence are not merely situated and productive, but transformative of mothering identities, roles and norms. We report the findings of a study of a group of professional working mothers as they negotiate competing and conflictual spaces of doing ‘green’ mothering. This opens an analytical window on the diversity of signifying practices that characterise how informants play with boundaries and ambiguity in creative ways, using images of responsible consumption and sustainable living to negotiate appeals to social well-being while authorising claims to ‘greening’ competence. Our interviews capture discursive events that rearticulate social messages, mixing them with brand appeals and media content that situate the invention of ‘new’ mothering with regard to flows of ‘greening’ discourse. Inventive appeals and related subject positions speak of a repertoire of strategic messaging practices, themselves consistent with a heightened reflexivity shaping content and presentation through practices we understand as modes of neutralisation – forms of self-governance and accountability that seek to generate resources of resilience that help reinforce green mothering identity claims made to self and others. Through socialising ‘sustainability’ in this way, we contribute to our understanding of the social surrogacy of brands and its problematics.     

西安城市居民旅游决策行为对比研究

通过对西安市不同家庭类型旅游者的问卷调查和访谈,借助对比分析的方法从信息来源、出游动机、出游方式、出游时间和频率、目的地选择、旅游项目选择,以及限制不同家庭结构旅游者出游的影响因素等方面,研究了单身、夫妻二人、核心和延续等四种家庭结构的旅游者旅游决策行为特征及规律。分析得出,家人结伴游已成为城市居民普遍选择的出游方式,而在家庭旅游决策制定中,不同类型家庭的决策行为呈现出不同的特点。     

Standing in the shadow of the corporation: women’s contribution to Swedish family business in the early twentieth century

This article investigates the role of wives in the Swedish business elite in the early 1900s, through letters and diaries. The Swedish case is particularly interesting, since the country has a long tradition of successful corporate families. The corporate wife was expected to perform duties linked to the family business. To get more directly involved in the firm, the husband had to give his permission. By offering support the wife could gain tacit knowledge of her husband’s work. Her emotional efforts influenced the achievements of the family business, sometimes even its survival.     

Children as vulnerable consumers: a first conceptualisation

ABSTRACT

Understandings of consumer vulnerability remain contentious and despite recent developments, models remain unsuitable when applied to children. Taxonomic models, and those favouring a ‘state’- or ‘class’-based approach have been replaced by those attempting to tackle both individual and structural antecedents. However, these are still overly individualistic and fail to progress from an artificial view that these dimensions work separately and independently. In contrast, the new sociology of childhood conceptualises childhood as a hybridised, fluid combination of structure and agency. This paper introduces this approach, new to the consumer vulnerability field, and proposes that it has considerable implications for the way that children’s consumer vulnerability is theorised and researched, and for the formulation of policy.     

Pester power – A battle of wills between children and their parents

Abstract

A widespread concern in the child-marketing literature, and indeed at a societal level, is that of pester power. There is a prevailing school of thought that holds that where children pose purchasing requests to their parents, pestering and unhappiness may result if those requests are denied. This paper approaches this issue by accessing children's views on pester power, as opposed to previous research studies that have tended to prioritise parental perspectives. Findings are presented from an interpretive study involving children aged between seven and nine years. The study suggests that children understand the various responses that parents make to purchase requests, for example, agreement, refusal, procrastination, and negotiation, and their parents' rationale for such responses. Furthermore, the outcome of such interaction tends to constitute more of a good-natured ‘game’ between parent and child, as suggested by the children, as opposed to the negative overtones of conflict indicated in the literature. The paper concludes that this interaction can be more closely aligned with our expanding understanding of the process of consumer socialisation, rather than the negative connotations of pester power and conflict phenomena, as suggested in previous studies.     

Consumer scapegoating during a systemic product-harm crisis

Abstract

To determine how consumers respond to betrayal of their trust in brands, we surveyed 2156 consumers in nine metropolitan centres in China following the 2008 melamine contamination crisis. Drawing on psychological drivers of scapegoating and attribution theory, we investigate how early information and the perceived involvement in a multi-brand crisis and attribution factors influence scapegoat effects. The survey results reveal that the first accused brand, Sanlu, took disproportionate blame and was made a scapegoat for an industry-wide crisis. The observer/tension-discharging perspective, the ‘early information’ effect, and the contrasting roles of manufacturers and non-manufacturer parties in the supply chain in causal attributions have the most significant effect in consumer scapegoating. Study of a highly unfortunate ‘real-life experiment’ shows how a food safety scandal spills over and negatively affects attitudes and beliefs about the whole supply chain and about competing brands.     

Worldwide Evolution of Channels Policy

Abstract

This article outlines the evolution of marketing channel systems and policies in selected regions around the world, less developed as well as developed countries are covered. It then delineates sectors worth researching, given the influence of globalization and the speed of technological advance. The societal impact of these problem areas cannot be ignored, as they are significant. From the viewpoints of the consumer and society, the decrease in small shops and the concentration of retailing might have negative effects; such as increased unemployment coupled with lower personal service offerings. This article further suggests that policy makers should pay attention to the ‘Digital Divide.’ The technological skills required to work effectively in the ‘Digital Age’ are separating skilled workers from others. It may not be possible to retrain significant numbers of other workers for many of the ‘new economy’ professions. However, society and employment may benefit if many of these non-skilled workers remain in or enter small channel service occupations.     

Sources of family income and expenditure on children's private,after‐school education in Korea

This paper examines the relationship between sources of family income and household expenditure on private, after‐school education for children in secondary schools in Korea in the context of educational ‘credentialism’, which values evidence of college education highly. Data from a survey of 514 parents of secondary school students are used. Estimated ordinary least squares coefficients indicate that the wife's income, but not the husband's, was positively associated with the amount of spending on children's education at private, after‐school programmes. This finding suggests that some married women with children in Korea seek employment in order to earn the money needed for their children's private, after‐school education.     

FEEDING CHILDREN AT SCHOOL*

After briefly reviewing factors affecting questionnaire design with reference to Primary School children, the paper explores three methods of determining food preferences of Middle School children. The overall patterns of food preferences that emerged were similar although there were significant differences obtained for 25% of the 100 individual food items investigated. The reading ability of the pupils influenced the type of questionnaire that could be used, especially for junior schools, although other factors such as amount of paper used and analysis time were also considered. The ‘recognition’ of the name of menu items was investigated and most popular or unpopular items were well known. There was no overall influence on the preferences shown by the sex or the age of the child, although children who stayed at school tended to have higher preference ratios for dishes than those who never stayed to school lunch.     

Cultural foodways in Sweden: repeated focus group interviews with Somalian women

The aim of this study was to provide increased understanding of what ‘feeding the family’ means to Somalian women in Sweden. Focus group interviews were carried out with Somalian women, analysed by means of the Grounded theory method. The results show that factors both in the family and in the outside world influenced their food choice and traditions, both in their home country of Somalia and in their new country, Sweden, after migration. The categories generated in the analysis were brought together in a model showing the women ‘struggling for their own cultural identity’ and oscillating between ‘remaining Somalian’ and ‘becoming part of Swedish society’, food being an important instrument in maintaining the cultural identity of their families. Cultural identity in this respect is a matter of the wishes of the husband, followed by those of the women and children and, at the same time, the strong pressure of the Swedish host country. This indicates how important it is for professionals to be aware of the trust people have in their own cultural food and therefore also how necessary it is to give culturally adapted food advice through public health work, in this case to Somalian families.     

The Influence of Confucian Ethics and Collectivism on Whistleblowing Intentions: A Study of South Korean Public Employees

The current study presents the findings of an empirical inquiry into the effects of Confucian ethics and collectivism, on individual whistleblowing intentions. Confucian Ethics and Individualism–Collectivism were measured in a questionnaire completed by 343 public officials in South Korea. This study found that Confucian ethics had significant but mixed effects on whistleblowing intentions. The affection between father and son had a negative effect on internal and external whistleblowing intentions, while the distinction between the roles of husband and wife had a positive effect on those intentions. The effects of collectivism were also different depending on the specific types of collectivism. Horizontal collectivism had a positive effect on both types of whistleblowing intentions, whereas vertical collectivism did not show any significant effects on whistleblowing intentions. These results indicate that cultural traits such as Confucian ethics and collectivism may affect an individual’s whistleblowing intentions in degree and direction, making blanket predictions about cultural effects on whistleblowing difficult.     

International food advertising,pester power and its effects

The increasing importance of children as consumers has focused attention on ‘pester power’: children’s influence over adult purchasing through requests and demands for certain products. Many concerns are expressed about pester power, including that it increases parent-child conflict. In the contested area of food marketing, an additional and particularly potent criticism of pester power is that it can undermine parents’ attempts to feed their children a healthy diet. Results from a systematic review of international evidence find that food advertising does cause ‘pestering’ by children and results in parents buying less healthy products that are associated with obesity. This undermines industry arguments that pester power is just a legitimate way for children to express their growing autonomy as consumers. Policy implications for marketers and government are discussed.     

Children as consumers – snacking behaviour in primary school children

Eighty‐four primary school children (the majority aged 7–8 years), from four schools, two in England and two in Scotland, were surveyed to identify snacking behaviour and the influences on perception and choice of snack foods. A questionnaire plus short interview with activity tasks was adopted, covering general snacking habits and a look at six specific groups of snacks comprising three of ‘unhealthy’ image and three with intermediate or fully ‘healthy’ image. The results showed that, for this age group, there was an overall preference for sweets, crisps and chocolate and less liking for fruit and cereal‐containing snacks. Attitudes to sensory properties showed that ‘taste’ was the main reason for snack choices, usually in spite of a ‘healthy’ image belief for the snacks. Choice was also dependent on parental influence and availability. Gender and relative socio‐economic level differences were minimal, but regional variations showed higher snacking frequency for the Scottish group, which also had fewer children preferring fruit. Meal patterns had little effect on snacking, but inclusion of a prepared meal at lunchtime may have reduced snacking frequency.