MARKETING TO CHILDREN: DEVELOPING AND VALIDATING A SCALE TO MEASURE ASSOCIATED PARENTAL CONCERNS

Parents are increasingly concerned about the unintended consequences resulting from marketing to children. Previous attempts to develop a scale for measuring parental concerns were limited to a few generalized concerns or restricted to a specific product, industry, method, media, or concern. The study aimed at developing and validating the Parental Concerns Measurement questionnaire (PCMQ) for assessing parental concerns arising out of marketing to children. Initially, the English version of the instrument was developed and was later translated to Telugu. The bilingual questionnaire was administered to 400 parents of school-going children in the age group of 6-12 years for testing its validity and reliability. Based on the initial analysis, the 38-item scale was pruned to 29-items, and analysis was repeated. Results demonstrated adequate validity and reliability for the bilingual version of the PCMQ (29-item scale). The study resulted in the development of a valid, reliable, and comprehensive instrument for measuring parental concerns associated with marketing to children.