Consumer Socialization

The consumer socialization theory describes the process through which children gain the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to function as consumers. A process that is mostly influenced by the child's parents, their peers and the media.  Much of the literature regarding this topic portraits children as individuals who need to be protected from all kinds of outside influences. But the advent of the internet and social media have given children more power in terms of product and brand knowledge, shopping knowledge and skills etc..

As a result, children are acquiring consumer skills in an earlier stage of life, which gives them more power in the family decision-making process.  That's why it’s interesting to investigate how parents acquire consumption competences from their children.

This topic is currently part of the PhD trajectory of Bo Dhondt and is supervised by Dieneke Van de Sompel and Liselot Hudders.