Parental Consumption Choices and Self-Concept Clarity of Children in Late Childhood

Abstract

This research investigates how parental consumption choices affect children’s self-concept clarity in their late-childhood (aged 9-13 years). In four studies, we demonstrate that the salience of experiential consumption (vs. material consumption) may promote children’s self-concept clarity. Furthermore, the influence of consumption type on self-concept clarity is not monotonic. It is moderated by (1) children’s interdependent self-construal and (2) the extent to which parents make choices by following others. Furthermore, both associative and causal links between consumption types and self-concept clarity have been tested.