Philippine E-Journals

Parental Mediation on Children’s TV Advertising Exposure and Children’s Materialism and Purchase Requests

Mary Gretchen F. Chaves

Discipline: Social Science

 

Abstract:

This correlational study investigated parental mediation on children’s exposure to TV advertising and their children’s materialistic attitudes. It also examined the correlations between parental mediation and children’s requests to purchase merchandise. A dyadic survey of 250 parents and survey (aged 7-12) was conducted in early 2011 among urban middle income households in Cebu City, Philippines. Adopting the materialism measures of Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005) the results indicate that the children seem equivocal on “having a lot of money” and “owning a lot of things,” and shun being “able to buy things that cost a lot of money.” However, 70% have asked their parents to buy them merchandise seen advertised on TV. Also adopting the parental mediation scale of Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005), the results show that parents guide their children about the value and commercial intent of advertising but demonstrate more frequent mediation through “active” mediation behaviors than the “restrictive” mediation behaviors. The study concludes a negative correlation, albeit weak, between parents’ TV advertising mediation and children’s attitudes on materialism, but none in the children’s request for merchandise advertised on TV.