Citation

Hartley JE. Int. J. Adolesc. Med. Health 2015; 28(2): 221-223.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Freund Publishing)

DOI

10.1515/ijamh-2015-0004

PMID

25781521

Abstract

Within the contemporary culture of consumption, school-aged adolescents, though neither waged nor salaried producers, are nevertheless treated by the media and the advertisers as if they are active consumers who are engaged in the project of the self. For those adolescents who lack the financial resources to 'buy into' this culture, anxiety may ensue. In order to ease this anxiety, and to acquire social status, some - not all - may make the 'rational' 'consumer' choice to engage in risky health-related behaviour. In situ ethnographic research is needed in order to complement and inform the existing survey-based evidence on the relationship between economic status and health-related behaviour among school-aged adolescents as they deal with the pressures of consumerism.

Language: en