Intergenerational Communication and Influence on Consumption Scale

What it measures

A 24-item scale (4 items x 6 subscales) measuring the degree to which parents have communicated and influenced their children's consumer skills, brand/store preferences, and attitudes toward marketing. The same 12 content items are used in both the influence and communication domains, distinguished by their response scale anchors. Validated in US, Thai, and student-parent dyadic samples. Alpha ranges 0.64–0.85 for individual subscales; 0.84–0.92 for overall communication and influence composites. Correlations among IGEN dimensions 0.44–0.88. Cross-cultural differences between US (higher IGEN scores) and Thai samples confirmed. Nomological validity from correlations with susceptibility to interpersonal influence and parent-child affection.

Response format

Influence domain: 7-point (1=not at all to 7=to a large extent); Communication domain: 7-point (1=never to 7=very often); items averaged within each of the 6 subscales

Scale items

Consumer Skills (4 items) — rational marketplace competencies. Used in BOTH domains with different response anchors.

• It is advantageous to be good at money saving, planning future finances, budgeting regularly, paying bills on time, and keeping periodic track of accounts.
• Their views on 'how to choose between products and brands' while shopping.
• Their views on 'how to evaluate information related to a product, its price, its advertisements, and the stores where it is sold.'
• The best way to shop is to compare two or more brands carefully on several features such as price, quality, and expected life and buy the one that gives the best value overall.

Consumption-Related Preferences (4 items) — brand, store, and product style preferences. Used in BOTH domains.

• Why they buy the brands or products they purchase.
• Their preferences for shopping at different types of stores.
• Their preferences for different styles of products.
• Their preferences for different companies and the products/brands made by these different companies.

Consumer Attitudes (4 items) — orientations toward advertising, salespeople, and pricing. Used in BOTH domains.

• Their views about product information provided by different types of advertising.
• The role that advertising plays in purchasing decisions (i.e., whether it helps or hinders purchase decisions).
• Their view on whether price should be used as an indicator of product quality.
• Whether to rely on salespeople to educate you when making a purchase decision.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The same 12 content items are administered twice — once for each domain. For the Influence domain, each item is followed by: 'How much were you influenced by their [your parents'] opinions on this issue?' (1=not at all to 7=to a large extent). For the Communication domain, each item is followed by: 'Have your parents communicated this to you?' (1=never to 7=very often). Items averaged within each of the 6 subscales. Overall influence and communication composites = average of all 12 items in respective domain.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Viswanathan, M., Childers, T.L., & Moore, E.S. (2000). The measurement of intergenerational communication and influence on consumption: Development, validation, and cross-cultural comparison of the IGEN scale. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(3), 406–424.

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