Consumers of the present times are required to develop various consumer capacities. In particular, it is important to establish correct values for reasonable consumption during the phase of adolescence in which consumer socialization takes place. At t...
Consumers of the present times are required to develop various consumer capacities. In particular, it is important to establish correct values for reasonable consumption during the phase of adolescence in which consumer socialization takes place. At this, consumer training in schools is required to provide guidance on developing correct consumption behavior of adolescents. However, the reality is that effective and systematic education is not being carried out at the moment.
This study aims to be utilized as a data required in advancement of consumer training in schools with emphasis placed on enhancing overall consumer capacities, rather than on training for cognitive knowledge acquisition by analyzing the levels of consumer knowledge and consumer behavior and examining social-demographical factors to exert impact on these two variables.
In order to examine the impact exerted on consumption behavior by consumer knowledge of adolescents in accordance with consumer training in schools, consumer knowledge has been grouped into 5 categories (general economic knowledge, monetary management, purchase, consumerism, resource utilization) and consumption behavior of middle school students was configured on the basis of these categories.
As the result of analyzing the level of consumer knowledge, the overall level was found to be low at 56.65 point out of 100. In particular, it was observed that many students did not have knowledge or had incorrect knowledge on areas related to consumerism. The level of consumer knowledge was higher in third grade students than the first grade and in female students than male. Also, significant difference was observed in accordance with occupation of student's parents, academic background of student's mother, household income and academic record.
Adolescents were not performing relatively reasonable consumption activities, they were also found not to keep allowance ledgers or to exert effort in consumption for environmental preservation. Therefore, it is required to administer consumer training in the direction to modify unreasonable consumption behavior and to form and reinforce satisfactory consumption behavior at the same time.
For the last, the level of adolescents' consumer knowledge had 4 ~ 9% of explanatory potential and exerted significant impact on consumption behavior and each low field. Since the level of impact is low, it is necessary to administer educational endeavor to maximize effectiveness and to develop consumer capacities so that to make a connection between consumer knowledge and consumption behavior.
On the basis of the above results, suggestions are made on the direction to be pursued by consumer training in schools as of the following. Since the level of consumer knowledge learned at schools being executed as reasonable consumption behavior is low, composite approach in the level of education for whole human being is required in consumer training. Also, studies on other influential variables to explain consumption behavior of adolescents must be administered in the future in order to achieve improvement in the contents and methods of learning through effective control of variables. With systematic and relevant consumer training to consider cognitive stages of adolescents, successful consumption activities must be ensured in the future.