Food Advertising Targeted at Children: Examining the Effects of Parent’s Personal Moral Philosophy, Parenting Style, and Gender

The purpose of this study is to test an integrative model that examines the role of parents in the interaction of foodadvertising and children. Specifically, the study intends to examine the mediating role of parenting style on therelationship between the personal moral philosophies of parents and attitudes towards food advertising (AA)targeted at children. Personal moral philosophies were examined in two aspects, namely idealism and relativism,while parenting styles are conceptualized as socio- and concept-orientation. The paper also considers thedifferential effect of parents’ gender for this mediation context. Data were collected from 112 Turkish parents whohave 3 to 8 year-old children via face-to-face questionnaire. A moderated mediation framework and Bootstrapingwere used to test the proposed relationships. The results indicated that while socio-oriented parenting stylemediates the relationship between idealism and AA, concept-oriented parenting style mediates the relativism-AAlink. More idealist parents have more socio-oriented parenting styles as well as more negative attitudes towardsfood advertising targeted at children than relativist does and concept-oriented parents. The mediating effect ofparenting style on the relationship between moral philosophies of the parents and AA was found to be moderatedby gender of the parents. The study contributes to literature by examining the combining effect of personal moralphilosophy of parents and their parenting style on attitudes towards advertising targeted at children consideringparents’ gender as moderator.

Çocuklara Yönelik Gıda Reklamları: Ebeveynlerin Bireysel Ahlak Felsefeleri, Ebeveynlik Tarzları ve Cinsiyetin Etkilerinin Araştırılması

Çalışmanın amacı, gıda televizyon reklamları ile çocuk etkileşiminde ebeveynlerin rolünün anlaşılması ve test edilmesidir. Çalışmada, ebeveynlik tarzının, ebeveynlerin bireysel ahlak felsefeleri ile çocuklara yönelik gıda reklamlarına ilişkin tutumları arasındaki aracılık etkisi incelenmektedir. Bireysel ahlak felsefesi idealizm ve rölativizm olarak ele alınırken; ebeveynlik tarzı sosyal ve kavram yönelimli olmak üzere iki boyutta ele alınmıştır. Ayrıca çalışmada, söz konusu düzenleyicilik ilişkisinde ebeveynin cinsiyetinin düzenleyici etkisi de araştırılmıştır. Analizlerde kullanılan 112 birincil veri, 3 ila 8 yaş aralığında çocuğu olan ebeveynlerden yüz yüze anket yöntemi ile elde edilmiş; ön görülen ilişkiler, düzenleyici aracılık modeli ve Bootstrap yöntemi kullanılarak test edilmiştir. Sonuçlar, sosyal yönelimli ebeveynlik tarzının idealizm ile reklama yönelik olumsuz tutum arasındaki ilişkide aracılık etkisinin olduğunu; kavram yönelimli ebeveynlik tarzının ise rölativizm ile reklama yönelik olumsuz tutum arasındaki ilişkiye aracılık ettiğini ortaya koymuştur. Bu sonuç, ebeveynlerin reklama yönelik olumsuz tutumlarının, sahip oldukları ebeveynlik tarzı ile birlikte, bireysel ahlak felsefelerinden etkilendiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Şöyle ki, daha idealist olan anne babaların daha fazla sosyal yönelimli ebeveynlik tarzına sahip oldukları; aynı zamanda, kavram yönelimli anne babalara kıyasla reklama yönelik daha olumsuz tutumlarının olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Söz konusu aracılık etkisinin anne-baba arasında da, diğer bir ifade ile ebeveynin cinsiyetine göre de farklılaştığı görülmektedir. Çalışma, bireysel ahlak felsefesi ve ebeveynlik tarzının birlikte etkisini incelemesi açısından literatüre katkıda bulunmaktadır. Ek olarak, önceki çalışmalarda yoğunlukla anneçocuk ilişkisi üzerinde durulurken; ebeveynin cinsiyetinin düzenleyici etkisinin incelenmesi de literatüre katkı niteliğindedir.

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