Born to Buy by Juliet B. Schor

Author:Juliet B. Schor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

The Survey on Children, Media, and Consumer Culture has now been taken by 300 children between the ages of ten and thirteen, in and around Boston, Massachusetts. These children come from varied socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, and span the spectrum from avid spenders and TV watchers to kids who are mostly isolated from commercial culture. Three hundred may sound like a small number in comparison to national polls, which typically start at a thousand, but within the psychological literatures that are most closely related to this study, 300 children is actually a large sample size. Most important, it’s far bigger than is needed to establish statistical reliability and confidence in the findings.

The children who participated in the survey were nearly all fifth and sixth graders. I chose this age group because they form the core of the tween market and are a key target for marketers. In contrast to younger children, fifth and sixth graders tend to be significantly involved in consumer culture and have developed some independence in terms of tastes and consumer choices. In the interviews, parents frequently described newfound interests in clothes, labels, and popular music. This age group has also been identified in classic developmental psychology models as distinct. They are thought to have moved beyond the purely self-centered acquisition stage of “I want this” and “Give me that,” which characterizes younger children. Fifth and sixth graders are capable of taking written surveys and providing more accurate information than younger children. This age was also appealing because the academic literature on their relationship to consumer culture is very limited. In contrast, teens have been studied more intensively. Because teens and children are so different, I decided not to add the older age group.

The questionnaire consists of 157 questions and covers five major topic areas: media use, consumer values and involvement in consumer culture, relationships with parents, demographic variables, and measures of physical and mental well-being. The measures of well-being were mainly previously established scales, or what psychologists call screens, for depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. The survey was administered in two phases and two locales—one suburban, the other urban. The first phase took place during the fall and winter of 2001–2002, with 210 children in three schools in the suburban town of Doxley, located about thirty minutes outside Boston. It’s an old town with a rural feel, but throughout the area, upscale subdivisions are springing up, filled with large brick colonials. Like other Boston suburbs, Doxley has experienced a housing boom over the past ten years, fueled by an influx of professionals seeking proximity to the high-tech companies that ring Interstate 495. Household income in the town is very high, at $90,000, compared to a statewide median of $50,502, and a similar nationwide level. Housing prices are high as well. In 2002 the median house cost more than $350,000, almost twice the price a decade earlier. Doxley boasts excellent public schools but without the prestige premium exacted in some of the neighboring towns.

The second phase of the

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