The role of parent–child communication styles and gender on family buying decisions : an exploratory study

Over the last two to three decades, the influence of children on family purchasing has been steadily increasing. There is a growing body of marketing literature focusing on the involvement of adolescents in the acquisition of products for both family and personal use. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived influence of adolescents on the purchasing of products within different family communication styles. Data were collected through a self-administered survey distributed to 221 adolescents in Pretoria. The findings show that there was little difference in the amount of influence of adolescents from the different family communication styles, and also no significant differences between the influence of male and female adolescents on product purchases. The results confirmed that adolescents had more influence on products for their own use than they did on products for the family’s use. Based on the findings, suggestions for future research are discussed