Children’s Influence on the Decision-Making Process in Food Buying and Consumption on the Family

Abstract

Objective: The present study aims to analyze the influence of the child consumer in the family decision process of food purchase and consumption.

Method: A quantitative-descriptive study was conducted with 304 parents of children between 07 and to 12 years old, through structured questionnaires. For data analysis was used descriptive statistics and agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis.

Originality: Few studies analyze the influence of the child consumer in the family decision process focused on food consumption.

Results: It was possible to verify the existence of four distinct Family segments: Concessive family without economic restrictions (37.45% of the sample): 75,8% of the children influences the decision making process of food purchase and consumption. Not concessive family with economic restrictions (23.87% of the sample): 50,0% of the children influences the decision making process. Not concessive family without economic restrictions (11.93% of the sample): 51,7% of the children influences the decision making process. Concessive family with economic restrictions (26,75% of the sample): 84,6% of the children influences the decision making process.

Theoretical Contributions: This research was the first to analyze the families’ decision making process of food purchase and consumption from the point of view of the parents' perception of the influence of their children on the process, approaching this phenomenon with a quantitative methodology.