The Mass Media and Adolescent Socialization

Abstract

Despite the importance of the mass media to adolescent socialization, mass media effects on descriptive norms have, to a large degree, been neglected in the literature. Based on social comparison theory and with data from a national survey of U.S. adolescents (N = 1,436), this study examines how advertising exposure and attention predict descriptive norms specific to unhealthy food consumption. Advertising attention, as compared to exposure, had stronger positive associations with descriptive norms specific to three reference groups (i.e., family, close friends, and students at school). Advertising effects were stronger in two cases for older adolescents than for younger adolescents.