Strategies for influencing parental decisions on food purchasing

In 2002, Story et al. proposed an ecological model for understanding the individual and environmental factors that influence young consumers’ eating behaviors. The theoretical framework suggests that eating behavior is a function of four levels of influence: individual, interpersonal, environmental and societal. The objective of the study is to explore how these levels of influence may explain strategies used by ten‐year‐old children to influence parental decisions on food purchasing. A self‐administered questionnaire was filled out by children. Gender differences were observed in terms of eating environment, social motivations to select foods and use of specific persuasive strategies. The results obtained contribute to our knowledge on interpersonal influences on children’s consumer behavior and on individual differences in consumer socialization. Practical implications are presented and recommendations for future research are made.