Factors affecting Consumer Socialization among the Youth of Tehran:Grounded Theory

The progress, development and dynamism of societies depend on the forces affecting them. Children and young adults as the future generations and decision makers will become useful and effective people for society if they go properly through the process of socialization. By their presence and activity in various social and economic fields, they will create stability in society. Thus, a society can have pioneers who have invested in the education of their children. The function of socialization is to adapt people with the dominant culture of the society. The transfer and continuation of values that aren’t in line with the economic development of societies shows that socialization hasn’t been successful. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the socialization of consumption among the youth of Tehran. Twenty-three participants of 20 to 35 were selected purposefully for the study. According to the coding process, the central category was “continuity of multiplicity of consumption behavior”. The central category showed that the consuming behavior of the society is not a coherent and integrated one and psychological, economic and socio-cultural causes, contextual conditions (economic and cultural characteristics of the family, sanctions and irresponsibility of the producer and the decreasing influence of parents), and intervening conditions such as social role-modeling and family upbringing style have caused the transfer of different cultural values and patterns to individuals, some of which push the society towards development and others do not. Due to the transfer of these values, it can be said that the function of consumption socialization has been disrupted and it has failed to adapt consumers with the dominant culture of the society and push the society towards development.