ABSTRACT
Children's increasing obesity worldwide is creating negative health and socioeconomic drawbacks. To find the determinants of obesity, this research looked at the influence of (1) media usage; (2) advertising messages/brand recognition; and (3) communication or lack of communication between parents and their children on obesity and food-related Purchase Influence Attempts (PIAs) of tweens. A 3-year longitudinal follow-up study was conducted with 68 families whose children were either obese or at risk of becoming obese. The subjects were divided into the following four groups: (1) media amount was controlled; (2) brand recognition was controlled; (3) communication channel of family members was controlled; and (4) all three conditions were controlled. Our results showed significant weight-loss and reduction in PIAs in all groups except in group 2 (brand recognition controlled). This work shows the importance of changing habits using behavioural treatment and the importance of communication among family members on obesity prevention.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Hongsik J. Cheon
Hongsik J. Cheon, Ph.D. (University of Florida), professor of Marketing, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea. He teaches undergraduate courses on principles of marketing and consumer behaviour and a graduate course on the information processing at Soongsil University (2008- present). He has published over 30 articles, books and chapters, primarily in the area of consumer attitudes and response to advertising. His current research addresses consumer behaviour and message framing. He was previously on the faculty of the Frostburg State University, MD, USA for four years (2004-2008).
Jay R. Fraser
Jay R. Fraser, Ph.D. candidate, he received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration in Canada in 1993. After working for several years in Canada he moved to Korea in 1997 to teach English. He received his master's degree in English Literature from Chosun University in 2009, but after teaching a marketing class, decided to get his Ph.D. in Marketing. He is interested in the marketing of social causes, particularly anti-smoking messages for adolescents.
Trang Kieu Nguyen
Trang Kieu Nguyen received her Master degree in Business Administration from KyungHee University, Korea in 2011. She has been studying as a doctoral student in the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Soongsil University (2013 ~ Present). Her research interests include consumer behaviour, advertising and marketing effectiveness.