IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v615y2008i1p101-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Food Marketing on Children's Preferences: Testing the Moderating Roles of Age and Gender

Author

Listed:
  • Ariel Chernin

    (The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

A large body of research suggests that food marketing affects children's food preferences, short- and long-term dietary consumption, and purchase requests directed to parents. It is frequently argued that younger children are more susceptible to marketers' messages than older children because they do not understand the persuasive nature of advertising; however, little direct evidence supports this claim. Employing an experimental design, this study examined the influence of food marketing on children's preferences and tested whether age (and gender) moderated the effects of ad exposure. The sample consisted of 133 children between the ages of five and eleven. Results indicated that exposure to food commercials increased children's preferences for the advertised products. Age did not moderate this effect; younger and older children were equally persuaded by the commercials. Boys were more influenced by the commercials than girls. Implications for the study of food marketing to children are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ariel Chernin, 2008. "The Effects of Food Marketing on Children's Preferences: Testing the Moderating Roles of Age and Gender," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 101-118, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:615:y:2008:i:1:p:101-118
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716207308952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716207308952
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716207308952?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Youth, 2005. "Preventing Childhood Obesity Health in the Balance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports ce206c664e4e4d95a510b0692, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. Robertson, Thomas S & Rossiter, John R, 1974. "Children and Commercial Persuasion: An Attribution Theory Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 1(1), pages 13-20, June.
    3. Gorn, Gerald J & Goldberg, Marvin E, 1980. "Children's Responses to Repetitive Television Commercials," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 421-424, March.
    4. Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children & Youth of which Robert C. Whitaker is a member, "undated". "Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 655b9b55a39f4db1a879cc8bb, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. repec:mpr:mprres:6209 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura C. Leviton, 2008. "Children's Healthy Weight and the School Environment," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 38-55, January.
    2. Cawley, John, 2008. "Contingent valuation analysis of willingness to pay to reduce childhood obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 281-292, July.
    3. John Cawley & Alex Susskind & Barton Willage, 2020. "The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment of Calorie Labels on Restaurant Menus," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1020-1042, September.
    4. Arkes, Jeremy, 2009. "How the economy affects teenage weight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 1943-1947, June.
    5. Cawley, John & Frisvold, David & Meyerhoefer, Chad, 2013. "The impact of physical education on obesity among elementary school children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 743-755.
    6. Jennifer M. Mellor & Ronald B. Rapoport & Daniel Maliniak, 2008. "The Impact of Child Obesity on Active Parental Consent in School-Based Survey Research on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity," Evaluation Review, , vol. 32(3), pages 298-312, June.
    7. Cornelia Butler Flora & Ardyth Harris Gillespie, 2009. "Making Healthy Choices to Reduce Childhood Obesity: Community Capitals and Food and Fitness," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 114-122, June.
    8. Oluyemisi Kuku & Steven Garasky & Craig Gundersen, 2012. "The relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity: a nonparametric analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2667-2677, July.
    9. Maoyong Fan & Yanhong Jin, 2014. "Do Neighborhood Parks and Playgrounds Reduce Childhood Obesity?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 26-42.
    10. Dominick, Gregory M. & Saunders, Ruth P. & Dowda, Marsha & Kenison, Kelli & Evans, Alexandra E., 2014. "Effects of a structural intervention and implementation on physical activity among youth in residential children's homes," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 72-79.
    11. Amy B. Jordan & Thomas N. Robinson, 2008. "Children, Television Viewing, and Weight Status: Summary and Recommendations from an Expert Panel Meeting," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 119-132, January.
    12. Trogdon, Justin G. & Nonnemaker, James & Pais, Joanne, 2008. "Peer effects in adolescent overweight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1388-1399, September.
    13. Ou Yang & Peter Sivey & Andrea M. de Silva & Anthony Scott, 2020. "Parents' Demand for Sugar Sweetened Beverages for Their Pre‐School Children: Evidence from a Stated‐Preference Experiment," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 480-504, March.
    14. Fahey, Tony & Delaney, Liam & Gannon, Brenda, 2005. "School Children and Sport in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BMI182, August.
    15. Datar, Ashlesha, 2017. "The more the heavier? Family size and childhood obesity in the U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 143-151.
    16. Peltzer, Samia & Hellstern, Marc & Genske, Anna & Jünger, Saskia & Woopen, Christiane & Albus, Christian, 2020. "Health literacy in persons at risk of and patients with coronary heart disease: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    17. Ronette R. Briefel & Denise M. Deming & Kathleen C. Reidy, 2015. "Parents' Perceptions and Adherence to Children's Diet and Activity Recommendations: The 2008 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study," Mathematica Policy Research Reports cb2819361b71499fbc422356f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    18. Emily Moiduddin & Nikki Aikens & Louisa Tarullo & Jerry West & Yange Xue, 2012. "Child Outcomes and Classroom Quality in FACES 2009," Mathematica Policy Research Reports b259d300a7764b6496a0c86ea, Mathematica Policy Research.
    19. Cawley, John & Liu, Feng, 2012. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity: A search for mechanisms in time use data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 352-364.
    20. Martinez, Stephen W., 2013. "Introduction of New Food Products With Voluntary Health- and Nutrition-Related Claims, 1989-2010," Economic Information Bulletin 145319, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:615:y:2008:i:1:p:101-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.