| This study investigates how external factors including family type, family structure, American television, and economic development as well as internal factors such as self-esteem, personal values and personal financial resources, affect Chinese urban adolescents involvement in family purchasing. The study included a simple random field survey and a content analysis. The survey of 429 high school students was conducted in Beijing, China in 1994. The content analysis of the back-cover advertisements of Beijing Review, an official magazine, was done at Holland Library, Washington State University.; The study took an interdisciplinary theoretical approach to look at Chinese adolescents' consumer socialization. It integrated social exchange theory, social learning theory, theories of motivation and the economic development perspective to develop a model to explain Chinese urban adolescent consumer socialization.; The model has been tested through t-test and regression analysis. The findings showed that the variables most likely to predict the Chinese urban adolescents' family purchasing involvement were single-child family concept-oriented family, (a family type encourages children to express ideas openly), self-esteem, and personal financial resources. The concept-oriented family also had a significant impact on the Chinese urban adolescents' identification with Western values. However, the social-oriented family, (a family type stresses deference to parental authority and avoidance of controversy) and identification with Western values failed to predict the involvement. Surprisingly, the relationship between exposure to American television and Chinese adolescents' identification with or acceptance of Western values was not found in the study.; Based on the content analysis of Beijing Review, the study suggests a significant consumer-value shift from utilitarian values to hedonistic values among the Chinese consumers over the past 16 years (1979-1995).; The model of Chinese Adolescent Consumer Socialization offers a better understanding of how Chinese adolescents participate in their family purchasing activities. It helps understand and explain the Chinese consumer behaviors in today's China. |
