Impacts of advertising on young children: Indian perspective

The purpose of study is to deliberate upon the impacts of television advertising on children & to discover significant impacts which direct to behavioural and eating disorder in children. Impacts which were identified of TV advertising were unnecessary purchasing, low nutritional food and materialism.A structured questionnaire was formulated on likert scale for parents of children aged 9–15 years and are studying in a school. A questionnaire using five point likertscale was administered to 475 parents of children (Age 9–14 years). Samples were drawn through convenience sampling approach from different places of Delhi and NCR; data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Pearson correlation was used to measure the relationships of the variables on one-to-one basis indicating the most correlated variable was Unnecessary Purchasing which had Pearson correlation value of 0.412 and significance value of 0.000. It was followed by a Materialism which had Pearson correlation value of 0.280and significance value of 0.000,followed by Low Nutritional Food being Pearson correlation value of 0.260 and significance value of 0.000. Testing of hypothesis found that television advertising increases the consumption of food that is unhealthy, having low nutritional values and high in Sugar, Fat and Salt (SFS) in children with F=31.2& P=0.000. Subsequently, it was found that Television advertising leads to increase in unnecessary purchasing in children with F= 48.2& P=0.000 and materialism in children with F=32.2& P=0.000. So, it is summed up that TV advertising is affecting children by increasing their food consumption pattern, preference for low-nutrient, high in sugar, fat & salt (SFS) foods and beverages, change in attitude that is aggressive and violent in nature and inclination towards unnecessary purchasing. Hence children awareness of television advertising and influence on parents purchase decision are important predictors of children's attitudes to television advertising.