CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Food advertisements broadcast on television are targeted at children to influence
their purchase behaviour. The advertisements also use creative elements such as
emotional appeals and cartoon characters to woo children. Frequent exposure to
food advertisements influences food preferences of children due to which they
prefer to buy advertised foods in retail stores. However, a majority of advertised
foods are unhealthy and contain high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Hence, mothers
tend to follow mealtime actions and feeding practices with children to mediate their
unhealthy eating habits. These phenomena have been thoroughly investigated in
developed countries but have not been adequately researched in a developing
country like India. In light of above discussion, the present study endeavours to
examine the nature and extent of food commercials broadcast on children‟s
television networks; use of promotional elements in food commercials; retail store
characteristics which influence food purchase requests of children; food shopping
behaviour of children in retail stores and the nature of parental mediation through
feeding practices. This chapter describes the detailed methodology followed for the
conduct of the present study.

DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The present study has been carried out through primary data (observation as well as
survey method). Data have been collected through content analysis of food
advertisements to study the nature and extent of food commercials broadcast on
children‟s television networks and to study promotional elements used in food
commercials to influence buying behaviour of children. In-depth information is
required to be collected on this issue as no such study has been conducted in India
(to the best of researchers‟ knowledge) to reflect the frequency with which food
advertisements are targeted at children, the nature of foods advertised to them and
the promotional tactics deployed in food advertisements to influence children. The
 Research Methodology

results of content analysis revealed that foods are frequently advertised on children‟s
television networks and use of promotional techniques is rampant. So, it is important
to explore the impact of food advertisements on purchase behaviour of children in
retail stores. Review of previous research suggests that retail stores also use
strategies to influence purchase behaviour of children. These may include keeping
foods at eye level and reachable shelf locations. Therefore, parents have been
reported to express that children make frequent requests for unhealthy foods and
consume a lot of advertised foods. In this situation, the mothers resort to feeding
practices with children. Therefore, collection of primary information through survey
method was planned to understand these aspects of the study. Thus, specifically, data
collected through survey method sought to investigate retail store characteristics
which influence food purchase requests of children, food shopping behaviour of
children in retail stores and the nature of feeding practices used by parents to mediate
food consumption habits of children.

Content Analysis of Food Advertisements

Selection of Children’s Television Networks

Five popular children‟s television networks POGO, Hungama TV, Nick, Disney and
Cartoon Network have been selected to record programs and advertisements. These
five channels have been selected because they were reported to possess high market
share out of all children‟s television networks in India (indiantelevision.com, 2009).

Data Collection

Data have been collected for five weeks (from 18 March to 22 April, 2012) by
recording advertisements and program content broadcast on children‟s television
networks (as mentioned above) from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm on weekdays (Tuesday to
Friday) and weekends (Saturday and Sunday). As electricity supply is disrupted in
Amritsar city for a long time, recording was not done on Monday. This resulted into
total recording of 242 hours for both weekdays and weekends.

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In the beginning, a spreasheet was prepared in Microsoft Excel 2007 and then,
whole data was exported to SPSS 19 for further analysis. This spreadsheet contained
information on:
Name of children‟s network.
Date of recording program and non-program content.
Day of recording program and non-program content.
Total time of recording in a day.
Name of recorded video file.
Time duration of programs shown on children‟s television network.
Time duration of advertisements broadcast on children‟s television network.
Name of product or service advertised or any other message displayed on
children‟s television networks except program content.
Type of advertisement (food, non-food product/service, co-sponsored by,
brought to you by, associated with, sponsored by, presented by, brought to you
by, associated with, public service announcement and corporate social
responsibility).
Name of food marketing companies that advertised foods.
Time duration of each food advertisement.
Categories of advertised foods on children‟s television networks.
Nature of advertised foods (healthy versus unhealthy).

Segregation of Program and Non-Program Content

All data were initially screened and both program and non-program content
(advertisements) were identified and analyzed. The non-program content included
advertisements for foods/beverages and non-food products/services. A few
advertisements that appeared in the form of social advertisements (advertisements of
social responsibility acts performed by companies) and public service announcements
(a feasible method for providing information to general public regarding any
„forthcoming national/international event‟, „installation of set-top box digital
connection‟, „necessary diet for children‟ and „importance of mother‟s feed for a new

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born baby‟ etc.) were also included. Sponsorships for programs were also taken in the
analysis, if they contained explicit messages indicating that the programs were being
sponsored by a particular company or product (e.g. „sponsored by….‟ or „brought to
you by….‟ or „presented by….‟ or „co-sponsored by….‟ or „associated with….‟)
following the typology of Huang et al. (2012). This resulted into a total of 8971
advertisements.

Segregation of Food and Non-Food Advertisements

In order to analyze non-program content, as the first step, all advertisements appearing as
„co-sponsored by‟, „brought to you by‟, „associated with‟, „sponsored by‟ and „presented
by‟ have been grouped into one advertisement category i.e. „sponsored by‟. This resulted
into nine categories of advertisements—food, non-food, co-sponsored by, brought to you
by, associated with, public service announcement, sponsored by, presented by and
corporate social responsibility. Further ahead, all advertisements appearing as co-
sponsored by, brought to you by, associated with, public service announcement,
sponsored by, presented by and corporate social responsibility have been counted as non-
food advertisements. Therefore, only two categories of advertisements—food and non-
food have been further analyzed. Thus, the data consist of 4091 and 4880 food and non-
food advertisements respectively.

Nature of Foods Advertised on Children’s Television Networks

Further, an insight into the nature of foods advertised on children‟s television networks
has been made. All food advertisements found to be appeared on children‟s television
networks have been grouped across food categories. It has been found that the
advertisements mainly fell into eleven food categories. These food categories are—
beverages and fruit juices, sugared and salty snacks, confectionery, ice-creams and dairy
products, baked products, health drinks and supplements, tea, juice concentrates, fast
foods, cooking ingredients and ready-to-cook foods.

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Extent of Food Advertisements Broadcast on Children’s Television Networks

Recordings of time duration of each food advertisement broadcast on children‟s

television networks show that minimum duration of a food advertisement is 10 seconds;
whereas, maximum duration is 60 seconds. In order to summarize the findings, the time
duration of all food advertisements is categorized as—up to 20 seconds, 21-30 seconds
and more than 30 seconds.

Food Marketing Companies that Advertised Foods on Children’s Television Networks

In order to identify the food marketing companies that frequently advertised foods on
children‟s television networks, a list of food marketing companies has been prepared.

Promotional Elements Used in Food Advertisements

After analyzing the nature and extent of food advertisements directed at children, it was
sought to study the manner in which promotional elements are used in food
advertisements. As foods are found to be mainly promoted using themes and appeals, the
methodology used to study themes and appeals is discussed next.

Themes Used in Food Advertisements

Themes used in this study have been adapted from Harrison and Marske (2005) to make
them suitable to Indian settings. These themes are—display of health-related messages,
eating occasion, eating location and eating alone or with others. Detailed information on
themes is given in the code book (refer Appendix II).

Appeals Used in Food Advertisements

A comprehensive list of popular appeals and their operational definitions have been
drawn from previous research (Pollay, 1983; Ji and McNeal, 2001; Buijzen and
Valkenburg, 2002; Roberts and Pettigrew, 2007; Stitt and Kunkel, 2008; Warren et al.,
2008). A total of thirty two appeals have been used in this study and are shown in Table
3.1. As more than one appeal can be used in the sample advertisements, each appeal was
coded as being present (1) or absent (0) in the advertisement. Thus, the appeals are not
mutually exclusive.

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Table 3.1: Appeals used in food advertisements

S. No. Appeals S. No. Appeals

1 Grazing 17 Newness

2 Popularity 18 Play

3 Performance/Speed/Strength 19 Having the best

4 Mood alteration 20 Economy

5 Promotional characters 21 Convenience

6 Fun/Happiness 22 Nurturing

7 Taste/Flavour/Smell/Texture 23 Family ties

8 Variety/Choice 24 Fear

9 Quantity/Size/Amount 25 Seizing opportunity/Competition

10 Price 26 Capability/Achievement/Enablement

11 Premium offers 27 Education

12 Humour 28 Peer acceptance

13 Fantasy/Magic 29 Adult approval/Disapproval

14 Being „cool‟ (groovy, hip) 30 Trickery/Deceit

15 Appearance of the product 31 Desirability

16 Action/Adventure/Courage 32 Denigration of core foods

Note: Operational definitions of appeals are given in code book (refer Appendix II)

Variables Used to Analyze Food Advertisements

Weekdays vs. Weekends

Children are seen to view television for longer hours on weekends than weekdays (Kaur
and Singh, 2011). So, marketers also advertise foods accordingly. Therefore, food
advertisements appearing on children‟s television networks were segregated across
weekdays and weekends. If food advertisements appeared on days from Tuesday to
Friday, then, those were categorized as food advertisements appeared on weekdays. Food

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advertisements shown on Saturday and Sunday were classified as food advertisements

broadcast during weekends.

Healthy vs. Unhealthy Foods

Previous research suggests that advertised diet differs significantly from the diet
recommended for children (Cairns et al., 2009). Therefore, all advertised foods shown on
children‟s television networks have been classified as healthy or unhealthy on the basis of
„Food Pyramid‟ given by National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), India in 2010. The
„Food Pyramid‟ is shown in Figure 3.1. Hence, if advertised foods fell into the two
bottom categories of the pyramid—„eat adequately‟ and „eat liberally‟, they were
classified as „healthy‟. Otherwise, if they fell into top two categories of the pyramid—
„eat sparingly‟ and „eat moderately‟, they were classified as „unhealthy‟.

Figure 3.1: Food Pyramid

(Reproduced with permission from National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Hyderabad,

India (2010))

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Child-audience vs. General-audience

Some advertisements may appear on children‟s television networks to target children

specifically. However, it is also revealed in previous research that some advertisements
may target general audience which includes children and persons of different age groups.
Therefore, in order to identify whether advertisements are directed at child-audience or
general-audience, the typology of Chapman et al. (2006) has been followed.
Advertisements are noted to be targeted at child-audience if one of following criteria is
met:

1) Child focused premium offers such as giveaways, competitions and prizes are
used in advertisements.
2) The advertisement features use of jingles and cartoon characters.
3) The theme of fun, happiness and excitement is used in the advertisement.
4) The advertisement claims that the product will make children special or superior.
5) Popular children‟s celebrities and sports stars are used in the advertisement to
promote a product.
6) Direct appeal to children is made in advertisements.
Otherwise, they are reported to be directed at general-audience.

Low vs. High Frequency of Broadcast Advertisements on Children’s Television

Networks

Food marketers are seen to advertise some foods more frequently on children‟s television
networks than others. Therefore, non-repetitive food advertisements (n=114) have been
further segmented on the basis of frequency with which they appear on children‟s
television networks into „low‟ and „high‟ categories.

Data Coding and Reliability

While using content analysis, there is a risk of researcher bias. In order to minimize
researcher‟s subjectivity and to obtain a systematic and objective description of the
sample advertisements, the percentages of intra-coder as well as inter-coder reliability
were checked (Kassarjian, 1977; Perreault and Leigh, 1989). Pilot testing was carried out

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on 818 food advertisements (20% of 4091) that were recorded during weekdays and
weekends. For this purpose, two coders were given the task of assigning codes to the
food advertisements. Before entering data into Microsoft excel spread sheet, both coders
set some decision rules and discussed the operational definitions and procedures for
coding (Kassarjian, 1977; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991). These decision rules, operational
definitions and procedure for coding are shown in the code book (given in Appendix II).
Thereafter, both coders viewed the advertisements independently several times. Each
advertisement was viewed first in its entirety without undertaking any coding and then,
all spoken and written text was transcribed on to the coding form. To capture the required
information, the advertisement was again viewed several times. If coders had doubts
about treatment of variables, they discussed discrepant variables, sometimes reviewed the
advertisement and came to an agreement on those variables before further analysis
(Kassarjian, 1977). The responses of both coders were then recorded and the following
formula was used to measure intra-coder and inter-coder reliability:

Number of agreements × 100

Number of agreements + Number of disagreements

The inter-coder reliability was found to be 91%, while intra-coder reliability was
96%.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

The hypotheses to be tested have been developed on the basis of previous research and
scenario in the Indian marketing environment. The study has been conducted under a
broad framework of the following hypotheses—
“There is no significant difference in nature of food advertisements and use of
themes and appeals across variables used in the study such as—weekdays vs. weekends,
child-audience vs. general-audience and advertisements broadcast with low vs. high
frequency”.
SPSS 19 has been used to analyze the data. The results have been presented using
descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and chi-square test has been used to
test the hypotheses.

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Data Collection through Survey Method

The methodology used for identifying retail store characteristics which influence food
purchase requests of children, children‟s behaviour in retail stores and use of parental
feeding practices with children is described here. For this purpose, the following foods
were chosen to understand the behaviour of children in retail stores. The food categories
were chosen keeping into account the advertisements that children were found to be most
frequently exposed to (through results of content analysis) as children are reported to
request for frequently advertised foods in retail stores (Borzekowski and Robinson, 2001;
Arnas, 2006).

Food Products Chosen for the Study

The content analysis of food advertisements revealed that foods which are frequently
advertised on children‟s television networks mainly fall into eleven food categories. Out
of these, seven most frequently advertised food categories have been chosen. These food
categories comprise of beverages and fruit juices (such as Amul flavoured milk and
juices); sugared snacks (such as Kellogg‟s Chocos, Britannia fruit cakes, Prime Time
fruit muffin); salty snacks (such as chips, Kurkure, Haldiram namkeens, Lehar
namkeens); confectionery (such as candies, chewing gums); ready-to-cook foods (such as
Maggi, pasta, soups); ice-creams and biscuits.

Universe of the Study

Data have been collected from three districts of Punjab—Amritsar, Jalandhar and
Ludhiana. These districts have been selected because they comprise of highest overall
urban population as well as population of children in age categories 4-11 years (Census
of India, 2001). These districts were also selected on the basis of traditional geographical
division of Punjab into Majha, Malwa and Doaba. Thus, Amritsar represents Majha
region, Ludhiana represents Malwa region and Jalandhar represents Doaba region.
Limitations of time and resources have been responsible for selection of these districts
from within the geography of Punjab.

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Sample and Sampling Design

Data have been collected from mothers of children in the age category 4-11 years who
were enrolled in classes ranging from Kindergarten to Class V. Children in this age
category have been selected because they are neither too young (to lack understanding of
advertisements) nor too old (to make independent purchases) (John, 1999). They are also
seen to influence food purchase decisions of the family in retail stores (Norgaard et al.,
2007). The mothers were chosen as the basic sampling unit for the present study as they
are seen to be the primary caregivers for children and have participated in majority of
studies related to children (Wardle et al., 2005; Scaglioni et al., 2008). Thus, mothers
were approached through the schools. Two schools were selected from each district. For
the aforesaid purpose, a list of affiliated CBSE schools in Amritsar, Jalandhar and
Ludhiana was procured from CBSE website (www.cbse.nic.in). This website revealed
that 63 schools in Amritsar, 74 schools in Jalandhar and 82 schools in Ludhiana were
listed with CBSE. Two schools were selected using judgmental sampling out of listed
schools in each district. Only those schools were selected that enrolled students with
various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. With the permission of Principal of
each school, teachers were requested to distribute the questionnaires amongst students of
Kindergarten to class V. The children were then asked to take the questionnaire home and
get it filled by mother. In case two children were studying in the same school, the mother
was requested to fill the questionnaire keeping in mind the child who had brought it. Of
the 525 questionnaires that were distributed to children, 473 (90.1%) usable
questionnaires were returned. Thus, a total sample of 473 mothers has been obtained.
Data were collected between August, 2012 to November, 2012. The district-wise
classification of respondents is shown in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2: District-wise classification of respondents

District Number of Respondents

Amritsar 176 (37.21)
Jalandhar 155 (32.77)
Ludhiana 151 (31.92)
Total 473 (100.00)
Note: Figures in parenthesis show percentages

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Table 3.2 reveals that the percentages of respondents who have participated in
survey from Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana districts are 37.21, 32.77 and 31.92
respectively. This shows that proportion of respondents from each district is almost equal.

Questionnaire Design

Data have been collected through a structured, pre-tested and non-disguised

questionnaire. In order to develop a comprehensive questionnaire for mothers, previous
literature on retail store characteristics which influence food purchase requests of
children in stores, children‟s behaviour in retail stores and feeding practices followed by
mothers have been reviewed exhaustively. Further, in order to make the questionnaire
more comprehensive and concrete, face-to-face meetings with mothers have been
undertaken. Apart from this, in the process of preparing the skeleton of questionnaire,
online discussions and telephonic deliberations with researchers, academicians and
experts in this field on this topic have also been taken up. A pilot test of approximately 40
respondents was conducted and their view points on various segments of questionnaire
were sought. This helped to make improvements in some portions of the questionnaire.
With a few deletions and additions, the final questionnaire was developed. The final
questionnaire has been divided into three sections. Section A explores retail store
characteristics which influence food purchase requests of children and shopping
behaviour of children in retail stores. Section B investigates family mealtime
environment and parental feeding practices followed with children. Section C gathers
information regarding demographic variables. The structure of questionnaire is discussed
in detail as follows:

Section A: As young children are seen to accompany mothers on food shopping trips to
retail stores and their food purchase requests are influenced by the frequency of visits,
responses of mothers have been sought regarding frequency of mothers visiting retail
stores to buy foods, frequency of children accompanying them on shopping trips,
children‟s behaviour while shopping in retail stores, foods mostly requested by children
in retail stores and frequency of seeking opinion of children while buying foods in retail
stores. Further, a battery of fifteen statements has been developed to study retail stores

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characteristics which influence food purchase requests of children in retail stores. The
statements have been devised on the basis of review of previous literature (for example,
systematic review reports of Hastings et al., 2003; Cairns et al., 2009 etc.) and other
empirical research (such as Gelperowic and Beharrell, 1994; McNeal, 1999; Pettersson et
al., 2004; Chapman et al., 2006; Pettigrew and Roberts, 2006; Berry and McMullen,
2008; Kelly et al., 2008; Harris et al., 2009; Ogba and Johnson, 2010). Each statement
has been measured on five point scale with „5‟ indicating „strongly agree‟ and „1‟
indicating „strongly disagree‟.
Subsequently, in order to uncover children‟s behaviour in retail stores, an array of
twenty two statements has been prepared on the basis of dimensions described in past
research (Galst and White, 1976; Atkin, 1978; Pettersson et al., 2004; O‟Dougherty et al.,
2006; Norgaard et al., 2007; Buijzen and Valkenburg, 2008). Each statement has been
measured on five point scale with „5‟ indicating „strongly agree‟ and „1‟ indicating
„strongly disagree‟.

Section B: Various factors such as—television viewing habits of children, food

commercials broadcast on children‟s television networks, retail store characteristics etc.
influence meal time habits of children. In order to protect well-being of children, mothers
control their eating habits through feeding practices. Therefore, responses of mothers
have been sought regarding mealtime structure in families such as frequency of taking
meals together by all family members, habits of watching television during lunch/dinner
with family, family mealtime environment and feeding practices followed with children.
Seven statements were developed to study family mealtime environment. Out of these
seven statements, five statements namely „We eat at least one meal a day together‟, „I/my
husband are often too busy to eat dinner with the family‟, „I enjoy eating meals with my
family‟, „Eating brings family members together in an enjoyable way‟ and „Mealtime is a
time for talking to other family members‟ were adopted from Neumark-Sztainer et al.
(2000). These five statements were appended with two more statements „Children have
their food early in the night‟ and „We cannot have dinner together because my husband
comes late to the house‟ for making them suitable to Indian conditions. These statements
were measured on five point scale with „5‟ indicating „always‟ and „1‟ indicating „never‟.
For negative statements, responses were coded in the reverse order.

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Further, in order to uncover parental feeding practices followed with children,

past literature was thoroughly reviewed. The review revealed that Birch et al. (2001)
Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) is seminal to research in this area. CFQ is defined as
a 7-factor model. However, out of seven factors, first four factors (i.e. perceived
responsibility, perceived parent weight, perceived child-weight and concern about child-
weight) measure parental beliefs with regard to obesity problem in children and only
three factors (namely restriction, pressure to eat and monitor) measure parental behaviour
for controlling eating habits of children. Therefore, researchers have developed newer
scales to explore feeding practices in greater detail. In this regard, Williams et al. (2008)
reported six dimensions of feeding practices—set meal rules, insist food amounts are
eaten, increase intake with food, use non-food rewards, become punitive and become
permissive. Further, Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) developed
by Musher-Eizenman and Holub (2007) is also available. It consists of twelve
dimensions. These dimensions are—child control, emotion regulation, encourage balance
and variety, environment, food as reward, involvement, modeling, monitoring, pressure,
restriction for health, restriction for weight control and teaching about nutrition. Another
Parent Mealtime Action Scale (PMAS) was developed by Hendy et al. (2009) that
includes nine dimensions. The dimensions of PMAS are—setting snack limits, positive
persuasion, daily FV availability, use of rewards, insistence on eating, snack modeling,
special meals, fat reduction and many food choices. Out of these scales (as discussed
above), CFPQ developed by Musher-Eizenman and Holub (2007) has been selected for
the present study because it covers a broad range of child-feeding practices and is more
comprehensive than any other scale discussed above. As CFPQ covers parental feeding
practices in an extensive way, it is more suitable for the present study since this aspect is
largely unexplored in Indian settings. The twelve dimensions of CFPQ are construed of
forty nine items. The first thirteen items (C1 to C13) of CFPQ measure feeding practices
followed by mothers with children on five point scale from „always‟ to „never‟ and next
thirty six items measure the same on five point scale from „strongly agree‟ to „strongly
disagree‟. For negative statements, responses have been coded in the reverse order.

Section C: In this section, information has been sought about various demographic
characteristics of the respondents—age and gender of child, age of mother and father,
number of child/ren, age of other child/ren, working status of mother, number of working

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hours of working mothers, occupation of mother and father, education status of mother
and father, family monthly income and type of family.

Variables used in the Study

Appropriate demographic variables have been used to analyse the data.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data have been analysed using statistical techniques such as—descriptive statistics
(means and standard deviations), ANOVA, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA),
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Binary Logistic Regression through SPSS 19
and AMOS 19. Exploratory factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis with
Varimax Rotation) has been applied to the statements devised to explore retail store
characteristics which influence food purchase requests of children and their shopping
behaviour in retail stores. Binary logistic regression has been used to investigate
influence of variables such as—food promotions in retail stores, frequency of the child
accompanying the mother on a shopping trip and demographic variables such as—age of
mother and father, education status of mother etc. on shopping behaviour of children in
retail stores. Further, Confirmatory factor analysis has been used to explore and
confirm Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) developed by Musher-
Eizenman and Holub in 2007 in Indian context. EFA was used to explore important
constructs of feeding practices followed by mothers with children in India and CFA was
used to check the reliability and validity of those constructs. Thereafter, ANOVA has
been applied to find if significant differences exist in responses of mothers with regard to
feeding practices followed with children.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS

The demographic profile of respondents is presented in Table 3.3.

An analysis of data revealed that age of mothers varied between 25 to 48 years
and age of fathers varied between 26 to 52 years. For the purpose of cross-tabulation, age
of mothers and fathers is divided into three categories viz., below 30 years, between 30
and 40 years and above 40 years. The table reveals that a majority of respondents
(82.4%) belonged to the age group 30-40 years. Nearly twelve per cent of respondents

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were below 30 years. Only six per cent (approximately) of respondents were more than
40 years of age. On the other hand, more than three fourth of fathers belonged to age
category 30-40 years. Nearly seventeen per cent of fathers were more than 40 years old.
Only three per cent of fathers were less than 30 years old.
Table 3.3 shows that a majority of children were of 5 or 6 years of age. Nearly
fifteen per cent of children were of seven years of age and twelve per cent were of 8 years
of age. Almost nine percent of children were of 4 years of age. Out of all children
(n=473), nearly fifty four per cent were males and forty six per cent were females.
The table reveals that more than two-third of parents (69.6%) have two children.
However, nearly twenty two per cent parents have only one child. Only eight per cent
parents (nearly) have more than two children. For those families, who have more than two
siblings, age of second child only is recorded. The table reveals that out of 369 other
children in families, a majority of other children (64.2%) were of less than ten years of age.
However, nearly thirty five per cent of other children belonged to age band 10-20 years.
Mothers were also asked about their work-status—whether they were working or
non-working. The results from the table indicate that nearly thirty two per cent mothers
(31.7%) were working. More than two third of mothers were housewives and did not
work outside homes. Working mothers were also asked about their number of working
hours in a day. They were reported to work up to 12 hours in a day. Therefore, for the
purpose of cross-tabulation, working hours of working mothers are grouped into three
categories viz., up to 4 hours, 4 to 8 hours and more than 8 hours. Their responses are
revealed in Table 3.3. This table depicts that out of working mothers (n=150), a majority
of them (80.0%) worked for 4-8 hours in a day. Nearly thirteen per cent mothers worked
for less than four hours. Only seven per cent mothers (approximately) worked for more
than eight hours in a day.
The respondents were further segmented into four categories on the basis of their
involvement in various occupations such as—service, professional, business/self-
employed and others. The table points to the fact that a majority of mothers (63.3%) were
engaged in service. Nearly twenty one per cent mothers were self-employed and fifteen
per cent mothers were professionals. On the other hand, nearly sixty per cent fathers were
businessmen and 33.6 per cent were engaged in service. Almost seven per cent of them
were professionals.

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Table 3.3: Demographic profile of respondents

Demographic Characteristics Frequency Percentage

Below 30 57 12.1
Age of mothers (in years) 30-40 390 82.4
Above 40 26 5.5

Below 30 13 2.7
Age of fathers (in years) 30-40 381 80.5
Above 40 79 16.8

4 42 8.9
5 77 16.3
6 77 16.3
7 70 14.8
Age of child (in years)
8 58 12.3
9 49 10.3
10 54 11.4
11 46 9.7

Male 257 54.3

Gender of child
Female 216 45.7

One 104 22.0

Number of child/ren in
Two 329 69.6
families
More than two 40 8.4

Less than 10 237 64.2

Age of other child (in years) 10-20 130 35.2
More than 20 2 0.6

Working 150 31.7

Work-status of mothers
Non-working 323 68.3

Number of working hours of Up to 4 hours 20 13.3

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working mothers 4-8 hours 120 80.0

More than 8 hours 10 6.7

Service 95 63.3
Nature of occupation of Professional 23 15.3
working mothers Business/Self-employed 32 21.4
Others 0 0.0

Service 159 33.6

Nature of occupation of Professional 32 6.8
fathers Business/Self-employed 282 59.6
Others 0 0.0

Matric 21 4.4
Higher Secondary 52 11.0
Education status of mothers Graduate 211 44.6
Post-Graduate 174 36.8
Doctorate 15 3.2

Matric 23 4.9
Higher Secondary 82 17.3
Education status of fathers Graduate 257 54.3
Post-Graduate 98 20.8
Doctorate 13 2.7

Less than 20000 159 33.6

Monthly family income (in 20000-30000 118 24.9
INR) 30000-40000 77 16.3
More than 40000 119 25.2

Nuclear 230 48.6

Type of family Extended 110 23.3
Joint 133 28.1

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Table 3.3 elucidates that the sample represented respondents (mothers) from all
educational backgrounds. But most of them were relatively well educated: 44.6 per cent
were graduates, 36.8 per cent were post-graduates and 3.2 per cent were doctorates.
However, the table explicates that more than half of the fathers (54.3%) were graduates,
nearly twenty one per cent were post graduates and only three per cent were doctorates.
Mothers were asked about monthly income of the family. On the basis of their
responses, monthly income of household is grouped into 4 categories namely—monthly
household income less than INR 20000, between INR 20000 and 30000, between INR
30000 and 40000 and more than INR 40000. Table 3.3 shows that nearly thirty four per
cent of respondents were those whose monthly household income was less than INR
20000. Almost twenty five per cent of respondents belonged to families whose monthly
household income ranges between INR 20000 and 30000. Similar percentages of
respondents were reported to have monthly household income more than INR 40000. The
percentages of respondents whose monthly household income ranges between INR 30000
and 40000 are sixteen per cent only.
Table 3.3 depicts the type of family, that is, whether respondents belonged to
nuclear, extended or joint families. Nuclear families have been described to include
husband, wife and children only. Whereas, if grandparents of children, in whose regard
data is collected, also live along with members of nuclear family, the family is referred to
as an extended family. A family has been described to be a joint family if husband, wife,
children, grand-parents, aunts, uncles and cousins live together. Table 3.3 reveals that the
children came from diverse set of families—48.6 per cent came from nuclear families and
28.1 per cent hailed from joint families and 23.3 per cent came from extended families.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is restricted to children‟s television networks only such as—POGO,

Hungama TV, Nick, Disney and Cartoon Network. Advertisements broadcast on
other commercial channels (mainly watched by general-audience) are not
considered in the present study. The results might be different if the study is
conducted on food advertisements broadcast on commercial channels watched by
general-audience.

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The study is restricted to three cities of Punjab only. Therefore, results of the
study might not be truly generalizable.
The three cities were selected on the basis of population as well as geographical
division of Punjab. Other criteria such as—education level or per capita income
are not considered.
As survey method has been used to collect primary data from mothers, possibility
of response bias cannot be ruled out.
The results might be different in case if observational methods are used to study
food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores.
Although mothers in India are expected to play a pivotal role in nurturing
children, yet, the differences in responses owing to work-status of mothers or the
role of grandparents and other caregivers have not been dealt with in the present
study.

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