The article “Consumerism is creating cunning and callous kids’’ retrieved from Globe and mail was published on May 29, 2014. This article discussed the developing effect of consumerism on today’s children, and it impact the identify formation. Despite being raised by altruistic parents, these children end up being callous and mean and are lacking in empathy. Why are children turning this way? This change is the cause of poor parenting and materialism. The vast environment and the ecological system surrounding them influence today’s children. One particular development theory that identify with this issue is the ecological system theory by Bronfebrenner. Ecological systems theory on child development provides an analysis of how it identified five systems, which are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chrono system all affect the development of the child (Shaffer, Kipp, Wood & Willoughby, 2013). Each of these systems contains specific roles that explain how child’s immediate environment to economic and political structures of the society shapes the course of childhood. Harried parenting of micro system to the role of media in advertising of exosystem influence can breed values that differ from their parents. The role of family is an essential component of healthy child development. The family values, socioeconomic status and religion prevailing within a culture, subculture or even neighborhoods can affect family interaction and development of the child (Shaffer et al. 2013). Thus good parenting, effective education and role modeling can help children develop altruistic values that
“Consumerism and well-being in early adolescence,” by Sweeting, Hunt and Bhaskar (2012) examine the truth behind the influence of consumerism on health and psychological wellbeing of the consumer. The authors in this study assessed the relationships between different aspects of consumerism and well being; and the impact on gender differences, and family affluence and its detrimental impact on wellbeing of the child. The participants in the study comprised of 1496 males and 1438 females between the age of 11and 14 years and chosen from the school with different socio-economic area. The study considered the level of consumption, material possessions, and consumer involvement, gender and family affluence scale in determining the effect on the wellbeing. Logistic regression model was used to establish the relations between the number of material possessions and four-consumer involvement factor: low self-esteem, general health questionnaire and anger (Sweeting et al., 2012). Result included the fact that majority of these students owned materialistic possession, differentiated into standard and premium possession. The authors discovered that there were no positive correlation between consumption and wellbeing however; consumerism did contribute to negative wellbeing. ‘Brand awareness,' associated with negative wellbeing especially among the young women. High levels of dissatisfaction associated with increased odds of low self-esteem, and anger in both males and females. These findings indicate the certain aspect of the consumerism impact, especially in terms of mounting anger, which can affect self-esteem in a developing youth.
All the parents should know that, children are continuously affected and are captivated by the need for various products. They are seen as key consumers in the society. Consumerism can affect child wellbeing and development. Children who feel their superficial needs for toys are not met may feel they are behind compared to the children who have the items or youth’s desire for, junk food or branded item and un-relinquished desire can impact their outlook on life. They might condemn the altruistic values and see the importance in the transient monetary gain or satisfaction. In addition, reduction in family time increased the risk of obesity due to too much time spent in front of watching TV or videogames, isolation are all risk posed by indulgence in consumerism. Parents should model behaviors and teach their children curb their desire for unneeded items and instill family values, respect and empathy.
In this second article “McDonald's adverts for healthier Happy Meals fail to put children off their fries," despite efforts to advertise for a healthier consumption, the children choice of consumption remained the unhealthier choices. In this modern consumerism era, advertising seems to affect children choice by driving them to choose fast food in general then relating to the specific details like healthier choices in the advertisement (Boffey, 2014). The developmental theory that emphasize on this issue is the cognitive process initiated by information processing theory. This theory views the human mind as a computer into which information flows, is operated and converted to output (Shaffer et al., 2013). This theory also stresses that strategies that children develop for attending and processing information are also greatly influenced by experience which defies them example their home, school or culture. According to the above article, children are exhibiting deficiencies in their strategies to use information in their favor. The lack of explicit cognition at this vulnerable young age can impact their food choices, which eventually can lead to health issues such as obesity (Boffey, 2014). According to this theory, children also have a tendency to be selectively attentive to the information, thus concentrating on whatever seems relevant to them and ignoring the important information (Shaffer et al., 2013).
Owen, Lewis, Auty and Buijzen (2013) in their article, “Is Children's Understanding of Nontraditional Advertising Comparable to Their Understanding of Television Advertising” examine the children ability to comprehend the reality behind advertisement by comparing both the traditional and non-traditional way of advertisement. Children as the young consumer can be vulnerable to the commercial products and advertising. This vulnerability drove the authors in this research to examine and investigate the children ability to discriminate various messages behind the commercial advertisement and the nontraditional advertising and demonstrate less understanding of the embedded messages in terms of product placements in movies, product sponsorship and advergames. The participants in this study included 134 students of varied age from 6-10 in United Kingdom from various socioeconomic status. These participants presented with five different types of advertisement style from which data on children comprehension were collected by asking open-ended question and pictorial response format. The result from this research indicated that children that television advertising understanding was significantly higher compared to the nontraditional advertising. Moreover, children demonstrated failure in communicating the explicit understanding of less evident advertising as in non-traditional advertising. The findings suggest that advertising in general and non-traditional advertising in specific pose a challenge for the welfare of children. Children today are an invaluable audience for the advertiser, and instilling unhealthy and redundant messages significantly impact and put them at great risk of not only being targeted but affect their growing childhood with unhealthy choices in life.
Today’s parents should know that children are vulnerable being lacking in comprehension and ability to discriminate unhealthy or helpful messages. This is due to the way they process such information or lack cognitive capabilities. Advertising can have a detrimental effect on the minds of growing child. Choices from food consumption to even severe lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking and teen pregnancy are all information that children are easily accessible. By advertising, it does not mean television only, but Internet and magazines can influence the young minds. Repetitive advertisement that children see can imprint on child’s mind and can subconsciously be affecting a child’s mind. Parents and policy makers should recognize the gravity of this effect and try to control such exposure by educating children on the nature of the advertisement and control such advertisement in general.

Reference:
Barton, A. (2014, May 29). Consumerism is creating cunning and callous kids, therapist finds. The Globe And Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/consumerism-is-creating-cunning-and-callous-kids/article18913979/

Boffey, D. (2014, May 31). Mcdonald's adverts for healthier happy meals fail to put children off their fries. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/31/mcdonalds-happy-meal-adverts-dont-help-children-choose-healthy-food

Owen, L., Lewis, C., Auty, S., & Buijzen, M. (2013). Is children's understanding of nontraditional advertising comparable to their understanding of television advertising Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32(2), 19206.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jppm.09.003

Shaffer, D.R., Kipp, K., Wood, E., & Willoughby, T. (2013). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (4th Canadian ed.). Scarborough, ON: Nelson/Thomson.

Sweeting, H., Hunt, K., & Bhaskar, A. (2012). Consumerism and well-being in early adolescence. Journal of Youth Studies, 15(6), 802-820. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.685706