The impact of consumer environments on consumption patterns of children from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds

Past consumer socialization research suggests that differences in the consumption patterns of children from dissimilar socioeconomic backgrounds can be attributed to differences in their consumer skills. We suggest, however that children’s consumer environments rather than deficiencies in skills may be able to better explain differences in children’s consumer behaviors. Toward that end, two studies are conducted. In the first, we perform an extensive qualitative evaluation of the consumer environments of children from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds. In the second, we survey the same children to gather data on their consumption patterns. Neighborhood of origin appears to play a large role in the children’s responses.