Consumer Vulnerability by Piacentini Maria Dunnett Susan Hamilton Kathy

Author:Piacentini, Maria,Dunnett, Susan,Hamilton, Kathy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Exploring adolescent consumer vulnerability through an ethnographic approach

Using an ethnographic adolescent-centric approach to consumer vulnerability in this study leads the researcher to explore through a bottom-up approach the domains and the dimensions of consumer vulnerability as defined by adolescents aged 11–15. A sample of 10 adolescents aged 11–15 years (six girls and four boys) was obtained and our initial observations and interactions suggested that there were new factors emerging, which caused us to seek additional informants through a snowball sampling technique.

Using this process, initial informants provided names of friends for the researcher to contact. In total, an additional four girls and six boys were obtained in this manner. Thus, the total sample comprised 20 informants aged 11–15 (10 boys and 10 girls). The criteria respected in this study were: socio-professional profiles of families involved in the study, geographic zones (rural vs. urban), and family structures (nuclear, single parents, etc.). We were given authorization from the head of school to recruit a sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years in a private middle school in southwest France.

To investigate the dimensions related to adolescent vulnerability within the consumption context, we conducted a longitudinal ethnographic research study (Wolcott, 1994) for six months with a group of 20 adolescents. Informed written consent was obtained from each participant and his/her parent/guardian before inclusion in the study. Following this ethnographic framework, we sampled the cultural frame of adolescents. We began by immersing ourselves in adolescent consumption culture, participating in adolescents’ conversations and practices, observing their behaviors and reactions, and informally interviewing as many adolescents as possible.

Our strategy for getting ‘close’ to the adolescents included informal means of addressing one another, proposing subjects that interested them (television series, celebrity gossip, reality TV, fashion, first loves, music, technology, films, video games, etc.). The different meetings with the middle-schoolers took place over 48 sessions at a pace of two sessions per week (Monday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.) for six months. The mixed-gender group of 18 adolescents participated in all the sessions and everyone was systematically filmed. The study also required a large capacity for empathy, putting oneself in the adolescent’s shoes, with all their preoccupations, and trying to think like them.

As we became more involved and adolescents started to trust us and consider us as a member of the group sharing the same interests and not as an adult and/ or researcher, interviewing became more systematic and easier to conduct. The downsides to our immersive and familiar strategy were related to the informal conversions that led adolescents to feel confident with the researcher and thus provide more personal information instead of focusing on the vulnerability issues within their consumption experiences. This led the researcher to focus more on the research object and reorient the informants towards the main topic linked to their vulnerabilities as consumers.

Qualitative data have been collected using mixed methods, which included participant and non-participant observations, informal conversations and formal interviews, document reviews, photographs, and drawings. Initially we were interested in exploring

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