Transforming children’s participation food consumption activities[Transformer la participation de l'enfant aux activités de consommation alimentaire]

This paper discusses some weaknesses of two frameworks largely implemented in marketing research to describe children's economic socialization : a Piagetian stage-based perspective, and a process-centered model aiming to explain how children acquire economic behaviours. Studying the way children develop within contemporary mass consumption culture entails a shift towards cultural psychology theory which helps to focus on a key stake : the transformation of children's participation in different joint consumption activities. How do children move from a peripheral (as users of a product bought by parents, as observers of buying situations) to a central participation (as decision-makers or recognized experts on some categories of foods) ? This approach highlights critical challenges that food marketing faces : on the one hand, it can help to overcome children's neophobic behaviour ; on the other hand, it may encourage children's own food choices, hence introducing risks in terms of food transgression or new eating habits dissociated from healthy eating norms.