Family Members' Perceptions of Adolescents' Influence in Family Decision Making

Abstract

Influence perceptions of mothers, fathers, and one adolescent child are compared to document structural relationships between parents and children in family decision making. Family triads are found to disagree in their perceptions of adolescent influence on both a broad selection of specific products and general influence in family decision processes. Mothers, fathers, and children, however, all rate children as having some influence in purchase decisions for a variety of products. A “household” measure of perceptions of general adolescent influence in purchase decisions is constructed and the antecedents of agreement or disagreement among family members are explored, yielding propositions for future research.