Investigating the unintended effects of television advertising among children in former-Soviet Bulgaria

Extensive research has been carried out to examine the unintended effects of television advertising on children in Western Europe. Little, however, is known about effects in Eastern European settings. Eastern European countries were part of the former USSR and its Soviet regime, meaning that all forms of commercial advertising were prohibited. Current parents and educators experienced the shift to capitalism first-hand and are particularly critical of consumer culture. This study adds to the current body of literature by studying unintended effects on advertising on children in a new context (i.e., Sofia, Bulgaria) and exploring the moderating effects of children’s advertising literacy. We collected data among 273 8- to 11-year-olds and found that advertising exposure increases children’s materialism and consumer involvement. We also found that children’s conceptual advert

Validating the Short Material Values Scale for Children for Use Across the Lifespan

Background: Materialism is a topic of interest for many scholars. Among children it is often measured with the Material Values Scale for children (MVS-c) (Opree et al. in Personal Individ Differ 51(8):963–968, 2011). Although the MVS-c was originally validated for use among 8- to 12-year-olds, its 6-item version is increasingly implemented among older populations (i.e., adolescents and emerging adults). Objective: The aim of the current study is to verify whether the 6-item MVS-c can be employed among older populations and used for the analysis of materialism across the lifespan. Method: The 6-item MVS-c is administered to children in middle childhood (ages 8–12; n = 2995), adolescents (ages 15–17; n = 267), emerging adults (ages 18–21; n = 267), and adult parents (ages 25 +; n = 2995). Its factorial structure, reliability, and validity are assessed and compared. Particular attention is paid to the scale’s metric and scalar invariance. Results: The results suggest that the 6-

Gone with the wind: Exploring mobile daters’ ghosting experiences

This study explores 328 mobile daters’ (63% females; 86% heterosexuals) experiences with ghosting, using both open- and close-ended questions. First, we used thematic analysis to explore mobile dating app users’ motivations to ghost, the reported conseque