'The Nag Factor': How Children Convince Their Moms To Buy Junk Food

In the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Children and Media, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explore the notion of "The Nag Factor," defined as the "tendency of children, who are bombarded with marketers' messages, to unrelentingly request advertised items."

The study found that packaging, characters and commercials were the main forces compelling children to nag. The researchers found a predominance of three types of nagging -- juvenile nagging, nagging to test boundaries, and manipulative nagging -- with overall and manipulative nagging increasing with age.

While the mothers consistently cited 10 different methods to deal with nagging, the most common were limiting commercial exposure (36 percent) and explaining to children the reasons behind making or not making certain purchases (35 percent).

Dina Borzekowski, senior author of the study, remarked, "To address childhood obesity, it may be necessary to limit the amount of food and beverage advertising shown on commercial television and other media, as this may lessen children's nagging for unhealthy items."

The study comes at a rather opportune time as the government has been cracking down on marketing junk food ads to children. But it seems like as long as there are junk food commercials, the many manifestations of nagging will not cease.

Comments

[Julie DeFrancesco]

10:36 PM on 08/22/2011

If characters cause children to nag, I wonder what happened after Candy Land released it's new (and borderline inappropriate) character lineup. Parents should check out this story before they bring the board game home http://popnology.com.

[lhanderson86]

01:20 PM on 08/18/2011

My mom would always go shopping while we were at school. I'd ask her after I saw a commercial, "Mom can you buy me _____" And she say sure sure sure.... but she wouldn't buy it. And I'd forget what I'd ask for the next day anyway.

YOU are the parent. Don't indulge your child's every whim and you won't have to worry about commercial advertising.

[Jake Thomas]

11:13 AM on 08/18/2011

I have a large family. Since I told my children I gave Santa to the Jhadist they do pretty much whatever I want. They certainly don't nag.

[SmartladyDem]

10:21 AM on 08/18/2011

Kids nag to get what they want, whether that is junk food, a later bed time or just more attention-but, it is up to the parents to set limits.

[JScott]

12:11 AM on 08/18/2011

And not just junk food but junky toys and such.

[greenearthbazar]

05:17 PM on 08/17/2011

We're very blessed to have kids that don't nag us much. We try to stress the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and try to set the example for our kids to follow. You certainly are what you eat.

[foodandart]

10:23 AM on 08/17/2011

Do like my mom did and go shopping when the kid was at school or at friends', and there's NO nagging whatsoever.

Simple.

[greenearthbazar]

05:19 PM on 08/17/2011

That's certainly true. No junk food in the house means less opportunity for kids to eat it. Plus if they only get healthy foods at home then their tastes will naturally lean to good food choices.

[foodandart]

06:04 PM on 08/17/2011

Yup. Main reason that at 46 I'm not fat.

Mom never gave me junk. The only cereals I got were Cheerios, plain Shredded Wheat, Rice Chex and occasionally Kix. We didn't even have white sugar, just brown. Soda was the occasional weekend treat (and it came in an 8-oz bottle), and I could get a popsicle from the ice cream truck when he came through the neighborhood. If mom was feeling generous I'd get an extra bit of cash and get a creamsicle.

[Hemlock Tea]

03:57 PM on 08/19/2011

I totally agree with this. I never understood why people feel the need to bring their whole family to the grocery store. Takes a lot longer, the kids nag you for crud (therefore more expensive), and you take up more space. Seems to me like they're giving up a precious opportunity to get away from the kids for a little while, too.

[AdV2k1]

08:03 AM on 08/17/2011

Children nag moms into buying them stuff, This isn't news, its COMMON SENSE.

[oldgraymare]

07:11 AM on 08/17/2011

A little junk food never hurt anyone. The operative word here being "Little". If you feed your children healthy food 99% of the time.....a treat now and then isn't such a big deal. What's important is being consistent.....you've got to be the parent and ignore the nagging. My mom used to make us make our beds every morning.....EVERY morning....no excuses. She felt it taught self-discipline that would bleed over into other areas of our lives....and you know what? It works. I did the same with my kids.....and I ignored the nagging (or stopped it cold with one of those hairy-eyeball mom-looks!) My kids are now having their own kids and all are healthy, eat well....and guess what? They make their beds.

[sugarcreekchile]

03:00 AM on 08/17/2011

Advertising doesn't force parents to buy their kids junk food. If it gets their kids to nag, so what? A parent who's in charge of their children instead of ran by them just says no. It doesn't take the kids that long to figure out that nagging gets them nowhere. Guess whose pocketbook the money is in? Why should food companies be restricted in their advertising by the nanny state just to keep irresponsible parents from giving into nagging? I think that some of these spineless parents, if their kids kept telling them they wanted to jump off a bridge, would drive them to it. When my kids get jobs, they can buy all the junk food they want. Until then, I have no problem being the "mean" mommy that nagging doesn't work on.

[kathyaj]

10:55 PM on 08/16/2011

Ok, "when I was a kid," (oh...I'm already sounding like my mother...), I was inundated with toy commercials, kid cereal commercials, candy, pop, junk foods galore, bikes, clothes, etc. etc. and here's the deal...the million dollar difference...my mother never let it get to the point where I was allowed to nag her. If I asked for something and she said, "no," she meant it. If I asked a second time and she said, "no," if I even opened my mouth a third time...well...I'd be lucky I didn't get overalls and socks for Christmas, dry celery for snacks and fiber cereal! (just kidding, but you all know what I mean) Not only did my parents mean, "no," when they said it, they also didn't allow me to nag them. What's going on here?

[JScott]

12:15 AM on 08/18/2011

Same here.
Seems like parents need to make it very clear, the more you whine and nag it will be less likely that you will buy it.

[aerofanbig]

04:52 PM on 08/18/2011

welcome to the hyper-parent, my kid is more special then anyone else in the world, always feel good, have no discipline so they can "express" themselves USA! The same people that cave to nagging are the same ones who let their little monsters run around and scream in restaurants and then cry foul when they get banned.

[grailknight]

07:11 PM on 08/16/2011

It took a Johns Hopkins study to figure this out?

[kathyaj]

10:46 PM on 08/16/2011

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!

[Jake Thomas]

11:14 AM on 08/18/2011

Probably over some sugary cereal.

[grailknight]

03:11 PM on 08/18/2011

Do doubt. I was quite adept at this. Eric Cartman took a page out of my playbook.

[El Chingaso]

03:33 PM on 08/16/2011

Americans are just getting fatter, lazier and more self-entitled. And such thinking & behavior is rooted in the nag-saturated phrase, "I want..."

A recent outing to the local cinema revealed a disturbing number of obese -- if not morbidly so -- Americanos. Too much nagging in childhood for junk food -- oops, I mean processed chemicals, salts, sugars, fats, ad nauseum -- means really rounded-out frames in later years.

[JScott]

12:15 AM on 08/18/2011

And don't forget all the commercials before the movie starts. Annoying.

[Karl Wilder]

02:48 PM on 08/16/2011

Parents. Try no. Seriously no matter how much nagging say no.

I nagged my mother for junk and got soda maybe 4 times a year. She said no, and once I had heard it enough I knew what it meant. I still nagged, but so what.

[tygr49]

03:33 PM on 08/16/2011

Yep, stick to your guns and say no. If you give in to the nagging, it ups the ante for the next time you try to say no.

[JScott]

12:16 AM on 08/18/2011

Yup 'talk to the hand'.

[angrypatriot22]

01:59 PM on 08/16/2011

Outside of the exposure that parents can control with regard to bombardment of auditory and visual senses in the form of advertizements, there are still a number of opportunities in which children can be exposed to such things. The mere fact that the marketing firms behind the advertizements hire seasoned psychologists to help them win cradle to grave product loyalty shows an ill intent when dealing with these children. Aggressive marketing undermines a parent's ability to well, parent. Anyone with a child knows that they cannot watch them every second of every day. I was a latch-key kid growing up with a single mother. She couldn't afford to hire a babysitter and thus I had free rein of the house every day after school until she got home from work. HOURS of ad exposure.