Socialization and Adolescents' Skepticism toward Advertising

Abstract The authors adopt a socialization explanation for adolescents' skepticism toward advertising. They conceptualize skepticism as an outcome of the socialization process, a negatively valenced attitude learned through interaction with the three socialization agents: parents, peers, and the mass media. In particular, the authors posit that the type of family communication (socio-oriented vs. concept-oriented communication), adolescents' susceptibility to peer influence (susceptibility to informational vs. normative peer influence), and the extent of television viewing are related to skepticism. They also posit that teens' marketplace knowledge mediates the effects of specific types of socialization—agent-based interaction (concept-oriented communication, susceptibility to informational peer influence, and the extent of television viewing) on skepticism. For all but of socio-oriented communication, data from a sample of high school students generally support the proposed socialization model of adolescents' skepticism toward advertising.