oa Het verband tussen reclame, gezinsconflicten en teleurstelling bij kinderen

The relationships between advertising exposure, disappointment and parent-child conflicts among Flemish children

The current study investigates whether children’s exposure to advertising is associated with disappointment when purchase requests are denied and with parent-child conflicts. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire was administered to Flemish girls and boys. A total of 314 children aged between 8 and 12 years filled in the questionnaire. A structural equation model was developed to test the advertising-conflict and advertising-disappointment hypotheses. The results show that the more children were exposed to advertising, the more they had conflicts with their parents, because exposure to advertisements urged children to make more purchase requests. As such, this study lends support for the advertising-conflict hypothesis. No support was found, however, for the advertising-disappointment hypothesis.