Knowing the child consumer: historical and conceptual insights on qualitative children's consumer research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a selective and necessarily truncated history of the place and use of qualitative approaches in the study of children's consumption in order to provide some depth of understanding regarding differences between and commonalities of approaches employed by academic market researchers, social science researchers and, to a lesser extent, market practitioners. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines key research statements about children's consumption beginning in the 1930s to ascertain the underlying conception of the child informing the work. Findings – It is argued that there has been a displacement of psychologically oriented, developmental conceptions of the child with sociological and anthropological conceptions resulting in an acceptance of the child as a more or less knowing, competent consumer. This shift has become manifest in a rise and acceptance of qualitative research on children's consumer behaviour by social science and marketing academics as well as by market practitioners such as market researchers. Research limitations/implications – Methods – here qualitative methods – must be seen as enactments of theories about conceptions of the person, rather than simply as neutral tools that uncover extant truths. Practical implications – Attending to how one “constructs” the child may usefully inform debates about the harmfulness or usefulness of goods and messages directed to children. Originality/value – This paper helps in understanding the long history of children as consumers, how they have been understood and approached by market and academic researchers interested in consumption and various ways conceptions of ‘the child’ can be used.