This study was conducted by polling 6 second graders, 18 third graders and 46 fourth graders at Beech Mountain Elementary, Bethel Elementary and Mabel Elementary schools.  The students were asked questions as a group as well as some individually.
       To see a synopsis of the characteristics of third and fourth graders, click on these links: 3rd & 4th
 
 

When choosing cereal as their breakfast food, the children in our study based their decisions mainly on taste.  When asked if they ever bought cereal because of the box it came in, the majority of the students said no.  Prizes were also not very important in choosing a box of cereal.  However, two prizes: CD-ROM games and beanie babies were listed as incentives for purchasing certain boxes.  Parents played a role in the cereal choice simply because “they buy it, and {the students} eat it”.
 
 

Toys

Toys

    We discovered that for the most part, children are not as affected by the packaging of their toys as they are by commercials for them, and the opinions of their friends.  Very few of those surveyed said that they can remember much about the boxes their toys came in, and almost none of them saved them or read labels, warnings, directions or other print that appeared on them.  Our conclusion is that at the second through fourth grade developmental levels, children are not yet paying close attention to details such as packaging and are persuaded instead by what their friends have. This correlates with the previous developmental study for the fourth grade, because the characteristics of fashion and other “cool things” becoming increasingly important and the need for social support are shown in our conclusions.
 
 

    When asking the students their favorite color there was no one answer that dominated the survey.  Most of the students had trouble naming just one and would give us a whole list of colors.  None of the boys said pink or purple but many of the girls said red, blue, and black.   There were some interesting outliers from the survey.  A girl put maroon and a boy put silver as their favorite color.  When asking the students what products made for girls and boy are they all had pretty much the same responses.  The girl’s products were dolls and makeup.  Whereas, the boys were dirt bikes, motorcycles, video games, and sports stuff.  The favorite commercials were Budweiser and Geico.  These products are not targeted towards children, but use characters like, the frogs and lizard, that kids like.  At this stage in development, there is an increase interest in the opposite sex therefore, many of the girls products being makeup.
 
 

    Most of the students answered “sometimes” and “always” when asked if they used individually wrapped products.  When asked whether they recycle, more students answered sometimes and never than always.  These results show that students in 3rd through 4th grade show little consideration for the amount of wasteful packaging and whether it can be recycled.
 
 

    Based on this developmental study of 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students, we have come to the conclusion that packaging has little to no effect on their choice of products.  Parental decision is a key factor in the purchasing of cereal, toys and other items.  When children are given a choice of products, their decisions are based mainly on commercials, peer influence, price and prior knowledge of an item.
    Most of our findings correlated with the information that was presented in Fall 2000’s developmental study of second, third and fourth graders.  The majority of the students seemed to place importance on making friends.  We saw this in the statements that were made about why they purchased certain items.  Their decisions were influenced by what their friends had or the popularity of the item discussed.  When asked about their ideas of what is considered a boy’s toy and what is a girl’s toy, many of them responded with answers such as playstations, dirt bikes, makeup and Barbies.  This illustrates the finding of the developmental study that boys become more interested in video games at this stage and girls are daydreaming about their future as women.
 We found one characteristic that contrasts with the finding of the developmental study from Fall 2000.  It was stated that the second grade “child still shows signs of preoperational egocentrism (unable to distinguish the symbolic viewpoints of
others from one's own).”  Our findings suggest that they recognize when someone else’s viewpoints are different from their own.  This was evident in the comments made that the students bought toys and cereal based on their own prior experiences and not because someone else said they should.  The differences in our findings may be due the fact that these are the same students who were interviewed for the previous study, yet they are now in the second half of their second grade year.
 
 
 
 
 

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www.dirtbike.com
www.hotwheels.com
www.youruleschool.com