Examining 4th grade primary school students' the status of conscious consumerism

The aim of this study was to examine elementary fourth graders' status of conscious consumerism. It was designed by adopting the mixed method approach in which quantitative and qualitative data gathering methods were combined. Partially mixed sequential dominant design was used in the study. It was conducted with fourth graders from 15 elementary schools located in the Tepebasi and Odunpazari districts of Eskisehir in the 2014-2015 school year. Quantitative data were gathered from 478 students through Conscious Consumerism Level Scale, and qualitative data from 15 students and three elementary school teachers through semi-structured interviews. In the analysis of the quantitative data, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H tests were used for comparisons between groups. The level of significance was accepted as 0.05 while interpreting the results of the analysis. The qualitative data were analysed by using thematic analysis technique, and the findings were defined and interpreted based on the research questions. The following results were revealed based on the findings obtained: Elementary fourth graders were found to have a high level of conscious consumerism that is defined in the form of "always". It was also found that the fourth graders' levels of conscious consumerism significantly differed based on the socio-economic environment of the school, parents' education levels, monthly income of the family, parents' professional state and state of saving their pocket-money, but did not significantly differ based on gender and the amount of pocket-money they receive. The students' state of conscious consumerism was found to be related to spending money, saving money and indirectly, positive behaviours performed towards conscious consumerism. The students perceived the behaviours that a conscious consumer should perform as the behaviours before shopping, during-shopping behaviours, behaviours towards saving, behaviours towards protecting his/her rights and behaviours that are indicators of consumer consciousness. The students expressed their consumer rights as being compensated, making a complaint and choosing goods and services freely. It was found that socio-economic environment was an effective variable on the students' conscious consumerism levels, and the students who were studying at schools located in middle and high-level socio-economic environments were more knowledgeable about conscious consumerism, conscious consumer behaviours and rights than those in low-level socio-economic environments. It was revealed that the teachers found the elementary fourth grade curricula, coursebooks and technological content insufficient, and asserted that consumer education should be taught with an inter-disciplinary approach or as a separate course, and family education and school-family cooperation should be emphasized. Keywords: Primary school, conscious consumption, consumer socialization, mixed method