Elodie Gentina

Money meanings among French and American adolescents

Purpose This paper examines adolescent’ money attitudes in the USA and France. It introduces and validates an 18-item scale for assessing adolescent money attitudes, explores the symbolic values that American and French teens attach to money, identifies the major segments of teens based on their attitudes toward money and assesses the importance that these groups place on price, novelty and brand name. Design/methodology/approach Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were initially conducted to explore adolescent’ money attitudes, assist in the development of measures and provide a context for interpreting subsequent results. Exploratory factor analysis (among 90 French and 70 American adolescents), followed by confirmatory factor analysis (among 332 French and 273 American adolescents) indicated that six dimensions captured money meanings. These dimensions were used in a subsequent cluster analysis to group teens into segments. Findings Six dimensions (worry, achievement, status, security, budget and evil) captured teenage money attitudes among French and American adolescents. A cluster analysis based on these dimensions yielded three groups: no worries, success and security. These three groups varied in their attitudes toward money and the importance that they placed on price, brand and novelty in purchasing. Practical implications This study provides measures for assessing adolescent money meanings and presents a preliminary segmentation of USA and French adolescents based on their attitudes toward money. Originality/value The results explore the impact of money attitudes on adolescent consumption preferences, demonstrate the utility of measuring adolescent’ money attitudes and segmenting adolescents based on these attitudes and emphasize the importance of both cultural and individual differences.

Le role du genre sur la fréquence de shopping en groupe des adolescents : entre besoin d’individualisation et besoin d’assimilation

Peu de travaux ont étudié les mécanismes identitaires sous-jacents au shopping en groupe durant l’adolescence. Une étude quantitative (Ntotal = 614) souligne que la fréquence de shopping en groupe répond à une dualité propre à l’adolescence : le besoin d’individualisation (i.e., l’autonomie vis-à-vis de la mère) et le besoin d’assimilation sociale (i.e., la sensibilité aux influences normative et informative des pairs). Nos résultats montrent que ces deux mécanismes sont modérés par le genre : l’autonomie vis-à-vis de la mère est une variable clé du shopping en groupe chez les garçons alors que la sensibilité aux influences normative et informative des pairs est une variable clé chez les filles.

Consumption in Rituals: Application of Cosmetics by French Teenage Girls

One period of transition in which personal rituals may be very important is adolescence. Girls, who often go through a period of uncertainty and ambiguity as they transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, count on the symbolic property of consumer products to help them acquire their new role (Marion 2003; Piacentini and Mailer 2004; Solomon, 1983; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Thus, the rite-of-passage surrounding adolescence is likely to be supported by important ritual consumption.

The role of gender on the frequency of shopping with friends during adolescence: Between the need for individuation and the need for assimilation

Very little is known about identity mechanisms underlying shopping with friends during adolescence. A quantitative study (Ntotal n= 614) shows that the frequency of shopping with friends relies on a balance between desires for individuation (i.e. autonomy from mother) and social approbation (i.e. susceptibility to normative and informative influence from friends). Our results show that gender moderates these mechanisms: the autonomy from mother is a key variable of shopping with peers for adolescent boys, whereas the susceptibility to peers’ normative and informative influence is a key variable for adolescent girls.