Abstract

This research study aimed to examine the effect of advertisement appeals on the psychological well-being of children and assess the moderating role of disposition in the relationship of children’s psychological well-being and advertisement appeals. The study was conducted by using primary data. Data was collected through the survey conducted in three-time lags from the children of age ranging from 8 to 12 years. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among a sample of 578 children. For the selection of sample nonprobability, convenience sampling technique was employed, whereas descriptive and inferential statistical tools were utilized for the data analysis with the help of statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) and analysis of moment structure (AMOS) version 23. Research findings showed that advertising appeals have a significant positive effect on the psychological well-being of children. Furthermore, disposition positively moderates the relationship between advertising appeals and the psychological well-being of the children.

Key Words

Emotional Appeals, Rational Appeals, Disposition, Time Lags and   Children’s      Psychological Well-being.

Introduction

Since the late 1970s, television has become an integral part of Pakistani society. Through this trend, advertisers are taking it as a great opportunity. Television is one of the important segment of electronic media.  Several products launch the advertisement campaign frequently on the television screen targeting the population, including children. Marketing personnel knows very well that the children are attractive target who are ready to purchase products which they like the most.  Advertisements to children is a very effective technique tool building a solid consumer base. (Dirisu & Iyiola, 2014). 

Advertising agencies are creating a large number of television commercials to stimulate children’s consumer behavior (Mehta & Bharadwaj, 2021). American Psychological Association formed a task force on children advertisements (Mason, 2012) that conducted research on children consumption behavior. Findings revealed that companies in the United States of America had spent at least thirteen billion US dollar every year to stimulate children’s consumption behavior (Mason, 2012). Furthermore, at least 40,000 advertisements watched by American children on television and similarly, over 19000 commercials were seen by the Britain children every year (Opree et al., 2016). 

Certainly, the most significant electronic media is television. Currently, television channels are more easily accessible via the internet and smartphone—several marketing companies targeting children for the promotion of their products. 

In the research of psychological well-being, the psychologist suggested two paradigms of well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2001). One is a hedonic paradigm, and the other is a eudaimonic paradigm. In the psychological well-being context, the hedonic paradigm is more popular as compared to eudaimonic, which is associated with happiness. The involvement of the hedonic paradigm is to research the subjective well-being of the people; more specifically, it concerns the mood and life satisfaction of people. The eudaimonic paradigm focuses on research about the psychological well-being of people, more specifically, the cultivation of a person’s abilities and strength to understand the person’s potential (Ryan & Deci, 2001).

Advertising firms formulate several marketing strategies by using advertising appeals that significantly increase children’ well-being (Radesky et al., 2020). Marketing researchers suggested that advertising makes children aware of the new products available in the market (De-Pauw, 2019). Advertising increases their knowledge about the latest invention in the field of technology. Convincing advertisement messages, which center around healthy food items, may help to improve the diet of a child by well-designed advertisement messages (Nairn & Mayo, 2009).

Advertisements containing impressive rational and emotional advertisement appeals motivate young children in pursuing their future aspects such as becoming an engineer, doctor or scientist. Advertisers inspire children about their future and make them realize the importance of education (Strasburger, 2014). 

Another important aspect for the well-being of the children is disposition. According to Hémar-Nicolas and Ezan (2019), children dispositions are the behaviors that organize the learner understanding and manage and respond to different situations in characteristic ways. According to Mondreti and Malar (2018), “predispositions to draw upon modes of response to situations and problems that arise within specific contexts”. The important aspect of the present research study is to assess the role of children’s dispositions such as knowledge or attitude on the relationship of advertising appeals and the well-being of the children. It is mostly presumed that children’s attitude and knowledge moderates commercial communication and well-being (Livingstone &  Helsper 2006; Beier et al., 2019).

The purpose of the present research study is to examine the effect of rational and emotional advertisement appeals on children’s psychological well-being. Moreover, this research study analyzes the moderating impact of disposition in the relationship of psychological well-being of children and

Advertising appeals.

Literature Review

Psychological Well-Being  

Ryan and Deci (2001) explored two paradigms of well-being known as a eudemonic and hedonic paradigm. Better living conditions come under the eudemonic paradigm. First of all eudemonic concept was developed by Aristotle and lately applied by other social sciences researchers his core idea of living better. Ryan and Deci (2001) proposed that eudemonic is a living trend that emphasizes what is more significant to people. The hedonic paradigm is associated with a happy and satisfied life.

Happiness in life is always considered a matter of great attention as it is eventually linked with the well-being of individuals. Individuals put great efforts into searching for happiness. Ryff (1989) played an important role in the field of research on happy life by developing a theoretical framework that includes six dimensions of psychological well-being; environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, Self-acceptance, autonomy, and positive relationships with others (Ryff, 1989).

Environmental mastery refers to the capability to manage one’s environment and the ability of someone’s to create suitable circumstances ((Ryff & Singer, 2008). The assessment of the psychological well-being through environmental mastery construct items consisted of the statements “I have been able to create a lifestyle for myself that is much to my liking” and “In general, I feel I am responsible for the situation in which I live”. From the children point of view, environmental mastery may involve taking little decisions about routine life (Wray, Crouter & McHale, 2010). Therefore, for the environmental mastery of children, scale items comprised as “how often they make choices relating to their daily life routine (for example, the decision regarding the playing timings, food choice in lunch or in dinner etc.).

The term personal growth refers to the self-improvement of knowledge, skills, qualities and life goals. Personal growth is related to a person’s feeling of continuous development, and it is very close to self-actualization (Ryff & Singer, 2008). Undoubtedly, children at a young age are not much proficient in in-depth self-actualization (Ryff & Singer, 2008). In the case of children’s well-being, personal growth refers to openness to new experiences relating to skills and knowledge (Opree, 2012). Initially, this dimension of psychological well-being consists of the scale items as “I don’t want to try new ways of doing things—my life is fine the way it is” and “There is truth to the saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” (Springer & Hauser, 2006). Although the developmental process of personal growth of the children started from late childhood, the growing kids exhibit great potential about their mental development due to curiosity (Engel, 2015). For the assessment of the children’s personal growth, the scale item may be articulated as: “how often do you like to engage yourself in learning new experiences”, for instance, new place visits, adding new friends etc. (Ryff & Singer, 2008).

Purpose in life is the third dimension of psychological well-being; it refers to a life goal of a person (Ryff & Singer, 2008). For measuring the psychological well-being through purpose in life scale items, the statements may be “I enjoy making plans for the future and working to make them a reality” and “I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future”  ((Springer & Hauser, 2006). Usually, children are not having long term planning and mostly, they focus on the present events (Zajenkowski, Carrelli, & Ledzi´ nka, 2015). Nevertheless, many children consider future planning by daydreaming (Pavlovi, Šefer, & Standovi, 2010). From the children viewpoint, life purpose might be investigated by asking: “how often you dream about the future profession or asking about their future profession”. This might be given the required information which leads to children’s life purpose.

Psychological well-being’s fourth dimension is self-acceptance. This is defined as positive thinking about themselves (Ryff & Singer, 2008).  The concept of self-esteem is very close to self-acceptance (Davis-Kean, & Sandler, 2001). Usually, the self-acceptance dimension of well-being comprised the measurements as “In general, I feel confident and positive about myself” and “I like most parts of my personality” (Springer & Hauser, 2006).  For the children’s point of view of self-acceptance, the measurement scale may be changed as “how often they generally feel good” for example do you feel proud about yourself and do you feel happy? 

Psychological well-being’s fifth dimension is autonomy.  Autonomy refers to the capabilities of any person to take independent decisions (Ryff & Singer, 2008).  Generally, the scale items of autonomy comprised as: “My decisions are usually not influenced by what everyone else is doing” and “It is difficult for me to voice my opinions on controversial matters” ((Springer & Hauser, 2006). But in the case of children’s autonomy, their training is required because they can involve in taking little decisions by themselves.   The major decisions depend on their parents; for instance in the decision of school for their future depends upon parents (Wray, Crouter & McHale, 2010).  For the children autonomy, the measurement scale can be changed to “how often they engage in the individual decision” and “how often they involve in shared decision making”. 

The sixth component of well-being is positive relationships with others.  Positive relationships relate to someone's warm associations, among others. The psychological well-being can be analyzed through the positive relationships with others by using the measurement scale items as “I know I can trust my friends, and they know they can trust me” and “Maintaining close relationships has been difficult and frustrating for me” ((Springer & Hauser, 2006). For the measurement of children, warm relations with others defined as spending time with their parents and friends (Kerns, Aspelmeier, Gentler, &Grabill, 2001). The relations of the kid’s age ranging from 8 to 12 years are strong enough with parents but might be intensifying relations with friends and peers (Nickerson, & Nagle, 2005). Therefore, for the appropriate investigation of positive relation of children with others can be measured by asking the question like nature and strength of the relationships of the children with parents and their peers. 




Advertising Appeals

The ultimate objective of advertisement appeals is to motivate consumers and convinced them to purchase a particular brand or product (Oyewo & Salawu, 2014).  Advertising appeals defined as “the overall tendency and nature of the advertisement”. Another purpose of appeals in the advertisement is to influence the consumers to purchase the product or service (Mortimer, 2008). Advertising appeals have a major role in the attitudinal change of the consumers towards the particular product. Consumers buying behavior has been influenced by attractive advertising appeals (Raza & Zaman, 2021).

Different types of advertisement appeals have been employed by the advertisers to motivate the consumers.  Kotler and Lee (2008) suggested that advertisement appeals are the key elements of advertising.  Advertisement appeals have been divided into two categories such as rational and emotional appeals (Kotler & Lee, 2008). 

In advertising literature, rational advertising appeal is also recognized as logical or informational appeal (Rhee & Jung, 2019).). Marketing personnel employ the rational advertisement appeal to motivate the consumers by emphasizing the benefits of the service or product (Sharma & Singh, 2006).  In rational advertisement appeal, advertisers also enlighten the core advantages, such as performance and use of the product (Gong & Cummins, 2020). Marketers also use the rational advertisement appeal to persuade the consumers by highlighting functionalities and of the service or product (Derbaix & Pecheux, 2003).  

Product and services which are similar with respect to functionalities and features as compare to the product or services of competitors, selection of rational advertisement appeals in such messages are not considered effective; in such cases, the emotional advertisement appeal has been commonly used by the marketing personnel in advertising messages in order to develop an effective emotional relationship of the advertised service or product and consumers (Gulla & Purohit, 2013). Emotional advertisement appeals in ads create a positive emotional state regarding the product or service (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).




Disposition 

In literature, the term disposition has been defined in several manners. With respect to Nicolas and Ezan (2019), dispositions are the habits that organize the understanding of learners, management and response to different situations. According to Mondreti and Malar (2018), dispositions are the actions or responses to understand and solve a particular problem that comes under a specific environment. Skill or knowledge to understand a particular problem is called disposition (McCarthy, 2018). According to Santos et al. (2017), a disposition is not only a biological or inherited trait; it is more likely to a habit of thought someone can learn. So it is concluded that disposition is changeable instead of considering it fixed. Hence, it is concluded that the disposition of the children is playing a key role for the educationists and practitioners.

Advertising Appeals and Psychological Well-being

Children’s insights about the brands, purchase intention and request to their parents for purchase are significantly influenced by attractive advertisement messages (Van et al., 2017). Therefore, it is obvious that the positive attitude towards the product’s advertisement leads to like the product(Mortimer, 2008). Advertising to children creates affective and cognitive responses to the advertisement messages (De-Jans et al., 2019). Van Evra (2004) proposed that children pay less attention to the advertisements which are created by employing rational advertisement appeals, while children pay great attention to the advertisements created by using emotional advertising appeals. Both cognitive and affective procedures work simultaneously, but emotional appeals focus on affective reaction, and rational appeals focus on cognitive reaction (Sharma & Singh, 2006). 

The first dimension of psychological well-being is environmental mastery that postulates the abilities of a person to manage any particular situation or environment (Ryff & Singer, 2008). In advertisements, achievement appeal is often used in food products. Marketers use such appeal to motivate the children, and in this way, they stimulate the environmental mastery of the children. 

The second dimension of children’s psychological well-being is personal growth. This dimension leads to a person’s feelings of growth (Ryff & Singer, 2008). Children’s personal growth is judged by their involvement in new experiences (Opree, 2012). In child-directed advertisements, adventure appeal frequently employs in food and beverages products to persuade the children. To stimulate children adventurism, such advertising appeal may improve the abilities of the children for openness to new experience subsequently leads to children’s personal growth. 

Psychological well-being third dimension is purpose in life. Purpose in life refers to a person’s life goals (Ryff & Singer, 2008). For children, marketers generally use imagination or fantasy appeals. These appeals may encourage children to imagine their future goals. The present study suggested that fantasy and imagination appeals improve the children’s thoughts about future goals.   

Self-acceptance is the fourth dimension of psychological well-being. It states as a positive feeling of one-self (Ryff & Singer, 2008).  In child-directed food advertisement messages, athlete and physical attractiveness appeals are mostly employed ( Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003a). 

Psychological well-being fifth component is autonomy. Autonomy defined as the abilities or skills of any person to take decisions independently (Ryff & Singer, 2008).  It might be children are involved in making minor decisions on their own, but they seek supervision from their elders in taking important decisions (Fattore et al., 2008).  Children’s food product advertisements, marketers, tried to persuade the young children to make their decision by own.

Positive relationships with others are the sixth and last dimension of psychological well-being. This component refers to pleasing and warm relationships with others (Ryff & Singer, 2008). In the light of the above arguments, the following hypotheses are formulated: 

Hypothesis no 1: Rational advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of children.




Hypothesis no 2: Emotional advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact 

on the psychological well-being of children.

Moderating Role of Children’s Disposition

The important phase of the current research study was to analyze the role of children’s disposition, such as attitude or knowledge, on the relationship of psychological well-being and advertising appeals. It is frequently considered that the knowledge and attitude of children moderates commercial communication and well-being (Livingstone & Helsper 2006). If children accomplish knowledge regarding the persuasion techniques used in advertisement contents, then they are possibly to be in a better position to respond to advertisement appeals (Kunkel et al., 2004). 

In psychological well-being and disposition, individual differences materialized at early ages, and these become stable with respect to time, and also they become modest to mature genetic components (Wang, 2020). Some research studies concluded that psychological well-being and advertisement appeals generally analyze through inborn dispositions (Operee, 2016). On the basis of this argument, the researcher proposed the following hypotheses. 

Hypothesis no 3:   Disposition positively moderates the relationship between emotional advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being.

Hypothesis no 4:  Disposition positively moderates the relationship between rational advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being.

Theoretical Framework



Summary of Hypotheses

Hypothesis no 1: Rational advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of children.

Hypothesis no 2: Emotional advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of children.

Hypothesis no 3:   Disposition positively moderates the relationship between emotional advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being.

Hypothesis no 4:  Disposition positively moderates the relationship between rational advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being.

Research Methodology

Children age ranging from 8 to 12 years was the population of this research study. Since the current study population was very large and also not properly well documented in exact number as well as sampling frame was also unavailable; therefore, selection of the sample is not possible with random sampling technique. Hence, a non-probability convenient sampling technique was employed for the selection of the desired sample.

The researcher approached principals of schools and forwarded the request for the approval of conducting a survey from the children of the school. The researcher got approval from respective worthy principals, followed by the parents’ permission for data collection from the children. Moreover, both principals and parents have been informed that children participating in the survey would be on a purely voluntary basis, and children may leave any time during the survey. Sufficient time was given to respondents for filling the questionnaire. Full support and guidance in explaining the scale items have been provided by the researcher during the survey. The majority of the respondents submitted the filled survey questionnaire within the stipulated time slots.  Children who did not fill the survey form were given more time to complete the required task.

The data collection process took 14 weeks because present study was conducted on time lags basis. The ultimate objective of time lags was to reduce the common method variance biased (Podsakoff et al., 2003). According to Peng (2013), in case the time lag is too short, then it may not reduce the salience of the scale items of explanatory variable exist in the memory of respondent. Similarly, if the time lag is too large, then it may allow the contaminating element among the dependent and independent variables. Therefore, in the current study researcher opted four a week time lag, which supposed to be in accordance with the above-mentioned conditions.

In this study total number of time lags were three. Independent variables (emotional and rational advertising appeals) and demographic variables (age, gender, role number and school name) survey were conducted in the first time lag (T1) from the school children. Moderating variable disposition survey questionnaire was filled by the school children in second-time lag (T2).  During the third time lag (T3), respondents filled the survey regarding the dependent variable be psychological well-being. 

In the first time lag, survey questionnaires consisting of independent and demographic variables were distributed to 1040 children who participated in the first stage of data collection. Out of 1040, 875 respondent completed the survey properly, and the response rate of the first stage was 84.13% percent.  The second phase of the data collection initiated after four weeks, 811 survey questionnaire were distributed among those children who participated and completed the survey in the first stage of the data collection. From 811 respondents, 724 completed the survey questionnaire in proper manners and response rate was 89.27%. In the third phase of data collection, 639 survey forms were distributed to the respondents.  From 639, 578 respondents completed the survey questionnaire and the response rate in the third phase was 90.45 %.  In all three time lags of data collection, response rate was 56.1 percent.  For advertising appeals, eight items scale Derbaix and Pecheux (2003). The present research study used self-reported six scale items for the measurement of moderating variable disposition. It was developed by Buijzen and Valkenburg (2005). The scale items consist statements concerning the moderation to be rated upon four point Likert scale ranging from (1=never to 4= very often).  Children’s psychological well-being was measured by adopting thirty two items by using the scale devolved by Opree(2012). Scale items based on four point likert ranging from from (1= almost never to 4= very often)

Data Analysis

Statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) version 23 and analysis of moment structure (AMOS) was used to analyze the data.  Data was analyzed with the help of demographic analysis, Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to provide a brief summary of selected samples and about the measures of dispersion and central tendency.

For the testing of hypotheses, inferential statistics and multiple regression methods were used to test whether the relationships between emotional and rational advertisement appeals and psychological well-being of the children. Furthermore, for the moderating analysis of disposition between the relationships of advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being have been analyzed by the regression analysis.

Cronbatch alpha reliability analysis was performed to analyze the reliability of data. According to this method a factor would be considered reliable if its value is at least 0.7 (Christmann & Aelst, 2006). Psychological well-being of children has a value of Cronbatch’s Alpha as 0.71, emotional and rational advertisement appeals had the values as 0.77 and 0.73 respectively.  Moderating variable disposition has the value as 0.74. Hence it has been concluded that all variables of the study were reliable.




 

Table 1. Reliability Analysis

Variable	Cronbach Alpha
Psychological Wellbeing	0.71
Emotional Appeals	0.73
Rational Appeals	0.77
Disposition	0.74

 




Table 2 showed the summary of demographic variables; gender, age, and school category. The table given below showed the male and female participation in percentage also. In present study total respondents were 578, female children were 264 whereas male children were 314 with the age ranging from 8 to 12 years.

The table depicts that 115 respondents from the age ranging  8 to  less than 9 years, 172 children with the age of  9  to  less than 10 years, 156 respondents age ranging  from 10 to less than 11 years and remaining 135 of the respondents with age group of 11 to 12 years.

Table given below also shows the categories of social class. Out of 578 respondents 225 children were from lower social class, 280 from middle social class, and 73 children belongs to upper social class.




 

Table 2. Demographics

Variable	Frequency	Percentage	Cumulative %age
Gender
Male	314	54%	54%
Female	264	46%	100%
Total	578	100%
Age
8 to  9	115	19.9 %	19.9 %
9 to  10	172	29.8 %	49.7 %
10 to 11	156	27.0%	76.7%
11-12	135	23.3%	100%
Total	578	100%
School Category
Lower social class	225	38.9 %	38.9 %
Middle social class	280	48.4 %	87.3 %
Upper social class	73	12.7%	100%
Total	578	100%

 




Descriptive statistics analysis of present research study variables is given in table 3. The mean value and standard deviation of children’s psychological well-being (mean = 3.87, SD = 0.68). Similarly, the mean value and standard deviation of rational advertisement appeals (mean =3.13, SD = 0.93). Emotional appeals (mean = 3.89, SD= 0.65). Moderating variable disposition (mean = 3.54, SD= 0.51) were measured. From the results of descriptive statistics, it is suggested that most of the respondents are agreed upon all the variables.




 

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics

	N	Min	Max	Mean	Std. Dev
Psychological Wellbeing	578	1	4	3.77	0.43
Emotional Appeals	578	1	4	3.82	0.47
Rational Appeals	578	1	4	3.53	0.73
Disposition	578	1	4	3.25	0.31

 




Pearson correlation coefficients of the study variables were given in table 4.  The correlation coefficient between rational, emotional advertisement appeals and children’s psychological well-being was significant. Likewise, the correlation coefficient among disposition and psychological well-being of children was also significant.




 

Table 4. Correlations

	EA	RA	Disposition	P. Wellbeing
EA	1
RA	0.157	1
PS	0.421**	0.343**	1
P. Wellbeing	0.572**	0.347**	0.452**	1

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

 




Multiple regression analysis results were presented in table 5. Emotional advertisement appeals have a significant positive effect on children’s psychological well-being with (B= 0.341, sig <0.000), so it is concluded that emotional advertising appeals have a significant positive effect on the psychological well-being of children. Similarly, the rational advertisement appeals also have a significant positive effect upon the children’s psychological well-being as (B= 0.215, sig <0.000). Hence, it is concluded the second hypothesis, H2, was also accepted. Furthermore, the regression coefficient of rational advertising appeals is smaller than the regression coefficient of emotional advertisement appeals; hence it is also concluded that emotional advertisement appeals have more effect on the psychological well-being of children as compare to rational advertising appeals.




 

Table 5. Regression Analysis

Independent variable		Dependent Variable	?	T	Sig	Hypothesis Status
Emotional Appeals		wellbeing	0.341	4.529	0.000	H1 Accepted
Rational Appeals		Wellbeing	0.215	3.435	0.000	H2 Accepted

 




The results of Table 6 show the moderating role of disposition on the relationship of psychological well-being of children and emotional advertisement appeals. The result of the interaction term between emotional advertisement appeals and disposition was

significant (?=0.110, p<0.01). Results also showed that the R square change is 0.01. Hence, hypothesis H3 is accepted with the conclusion that the disposition strengthens the relationships of emotional appeals and children’s psychological well-being.




 

Table 6. Moderation Results of Hypothesis H3

Model	Variable	B	SE	T	Sig	R2	R2 Change	Hypothesis Status
1	EA	0.593	0.034	17.649	0.000	0.402
	PS	0.231	0.033	6.882	0.000
2	EA	0.589	0.033	17.665	0.000	0.412
	Disp.	0.227	0.031	6.823	0.000
	EA*Disp.	0.110	0.033	3.003	0.003		0.010	H3 accepted

 




The results of table 7 shows the analysis of moderating effect of disposition on the relationship of children’s psychological well-being and rational advertising appeals. The results of interaction term of   rational advertisement appeals and disposition was

significant (?=0.067, p<0.05). Table also depicted that R square change was 0.05. Therefore, the hypothesis H4 was also accepted which concluded that the disposition strengthen the relationship of children’s psychological well-being and rational advertising appeals.




 

Table 7. Moderation Results of Hypothesis H4

Model	Variable	B	SE	T	Sig	R2	R2 Change	Hypothesis Status
1	RA	0.538	0.036	14.944	0.000	0.332
	PS	0.218	0.035	6.228	0.000
2	RA	0.527	0.036	14.639	0.000	0.336
	PS	0.220	0.033	6.667	0.000
	RA*Disp	0.067	0.032	2.093	0.050		0.005	H4 accepted

Discussion

The children’s psychological well-being was analyzed by two independent variables that are emotional and rational advertisement appeals, along with the moderating role of disposition. In a current research study, hypothesis H1 and H2 proposed that emotional and rational advertisement appeals have a significant positive effect on the psychological well-being of children. The results of multiple regression analysis suggested that the emotional and rational advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of children. These results were consistent with the previous research studies such as Khuhro et al. (2015). These researchers proposed that emotional advertising appeals in advertising messages have a positive effect on the behavior of children. Similarly, Royne et al. (2021) concluded that emotional advertising appeals in advertisements have a positive impact on the decision making process. Naumovska and Milenkovska (2017) proposed that emotional advertisement appeals were more preferred by the consumers as compare to the rational advertising appeals. Ezekiel (2017) suggested that use of emotional advertising appeals in persuasion messages will generate good feelings in children.

Current research study results, concluded that disposition positively moderate the relationship of psychological well-being of children and emotional advertisement appeals. Nicolini, Cassia, and Bellotto (2017) suggested that the disposition has a significant effect in understanding advertising messages by the children. Roman et al., (2015) concluded that moderating role of disposition minimize the negative effects of advertising and increases children’s life satisfaction.

Disposition also has a positive moderating role in the relationship of psychological well-being of children and rational advertisement appeals. The results of current research study suggested that disposition has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship of children’s psychological well-being and rational advertisement appeals. Finding is aligned with the earlier research study conducted upon the role of disposition in understanding rational advertising appeals based commercial messages generated for the children’s persuasion (O’Rourke et al., 2019; Lapierre, 2019; Kriks et al., 1982). This particular finding is also consistent with the past research study focusing upon the relationship of learning abilities and psychological well-being of the children which influencing knowledge, attitude and behavior of the children who suggesting that learning abilities and guidance strengthen the understanding of the persuasive messages (Tarabashkina et al., 2018; Hudders, 2017; Koblinsky et al., 1982).

Theoretical Implications

The objective of the present research study was to examine the impact of rational and emotional advertisement appeals on children’s psychological well-being. The findings of the current study showed that both rational and emotional advertisement appeals have a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of children. In addition, the disposition has a moderating effect on the relationship of advertising appeals and children’s psychological well-being of children.

As mentioned above, limited research studies were conducted on the impact of emotional and rational advertisement appeals in the relationship of children’s psychological well-being.  The current research study concluded that advertising appeals have a positive effect on the well-being of children. This study develops a comprehensive model of children well-being caused by advertising appeals.

Practical Implications

The findings of the current research study are helpful for marketing practitioner, governmental organizations, advertisers and marketing agencies because they provide valuable evidence for all such practitioners. 

For marketing practitioners, the present study is helpful for understanding the outcomes and impacts of advertising appeals on children’s psychological well-being. It also provides potential directions to practitioners to point out the important segments of advertising appeals. Findings of this research study demanded that governmental organizations and advertising agencies involved in the creation of social service messages should apply similar components in their Public Service Announcements (PSAs), as the commercial advertising agencies use in making commercial advertisements to attract the children. 

For the promotion of healthy eating habits, governmental organizations should use emotional elements in child-directed advertisements. Hence for the positive effect on children attitude towards Public Service Announcements (PSAs), these organizations must add emotional appeals in the message content. Moreover, it is also very important for governmental organizations to avoid long explanation in the creation of public service announcements because, through detailed explanations, children felt boring.

Limitations and Future Research

The current research study selected a sample of children age ranging from 8 to 12 years from Pakistan. Further study may examine the same subject in other countries with some other age groups.

The second limitation of this research examined the effect of emotional and rational advertisement appeals on the psychological well-being of children, although, findings of the current study have limited generalizability on the children’s behavior. It may be probable that the positive attitude of the children towards the advertising appeals may be leading to a change in the behavior of the children. Therefore it is suggested to analyze the behavioral aspect of the children for future research.

Thirdly, only disposition was considered as a moderating variable; there are many other variables that may have a moderating effect on the relationship among advertising appeals well-being of the children. Those variables may be parental support, social status, and gender. 

References

• Beier, J. S., Gross, J. T., Brett, B. E., Stern, J. A., Martin, D. R., & Cassidy, J. (2019). Helping, Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to individual differences in attachment. Child development, 90(2), 273- 289.
• Buijzen, M. & Valkenburg, P.M. (2003a),
• Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2005). Parental mediation of undesired advertising effects. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 49, 153-165.
• Christmann, A., & Aelst, S. V. (2006). Robust estimation of cronbach's alpha. Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 97, 1660-1674.
• Davis-Kean, P.E.; Sandler, H.M.(2001). A meta- analysis of measures of self-esteem for young children: A framework for future measures. Child Dev, 72, 887-906.
• De Jans, S., Van de Sompel, D., Hudders, L., & Cauberghe, V. (2019). Advertising targeting young children: an overview of 10 years of research (2006-2016). International Journal of Advertising, 38(2), 173-206
• De Pauw, P., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2019). Taking children's advertising literacy to a higher level: A multilevel analysis exploring the influence of parents, peers, and teachers. Communication Research, 46(8), 1197-1221.
• Derbaix, C. & Pecheux, C. (2003),
• Dirisu, I &Iyiola, J. (2014). Children advertisement and their effects on family purchasing behaviour: a study of Canaanland, Ota, Nigeria. Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective. 3(2) Pp 9-17
• Engel, S. (2015).The Hungry Mind. The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood; Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, ISBN 9780674736757.
• Ezekiel, M. (2017). Effects of Advertising Appeals on Children Choice of Infant Food Products in Calabar. American Based Research Journal, 6(12).
• Fattore, T., Mason, J. & Watson, E. (2008),
• Gong, Z., & Cummins, R. G. (2020). Redefining rational and emotional advertising appeals as available processing resources: Toward an information processing perspective. Journal of Promotion Management, 26(2), 277-299.
• Gulla, A. & Purohit, H. (2013),
• Hémar-Nicolas, V., & Ezan, P. (2019). How do children make sense of food well-being? Food for thought for responsible retailers. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
• Hudders, L., De Pauw, P., Cauberghe, V., Panic, K., Zarouali, B., & Rozendaal, E. (2017). Shedding new light on how advertising literacy can affect children's processing of embedded advertising formats: A future research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 46(2), 333-349.
• Kerns, K.A.; Aspelmeier, J.E.; Gentzler, A.L (2001).; Grabill, C.M. Parent-child attachment and monitoring in middle childhood. J. Fam. Psychol, 15, 69-81.
• Khuhro, R. A., Qureshi, Q. A., Humayon, A. A., Yasin, M. N., & Javed, F. (2015). Relevance, Confusion, Entertainment and Skepticism towards Advertising. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(3), 1-9.
• Kirks BA, Hendricks D. & Wyse B.(1982). Parent involvement in nutrition education for primary grade students. J Nutr Educ; 14:137-140.
• Koblinsky, S. A. Guthrie J, & Lynch L. (1992). Evaluation of a nutrition education program for head start parents. J Nutr Educ. 1992; 24:4-12.
• Kotler, P. & Lee, N. R. (2008), Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Lapierre, M. A. (2019). Advertising literacy and executive function: testing their influence on children's consumer behavior. Media Psychology, 22(1), 39-59
• Livingstone, S., & Bober, M. (2006). Regulating the internet at home: Contrasting the perspectives of children and parents. In D. Buckingham, R. Willett (Eds.), Digital generations: Children, young people, and new media (pp. 93-113). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Mason, P. (2012),
• McCarthy, N. (2018). A game approach to art appreciation for children: Encountering artworks with a spirited, plucky, brave and daring disposition. australian art education, 39(1), 146-159.
• Mehta, R., & Bharadwaj, A. (2021). Food advertising targeting children in India: analysis and implications. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 59, 102428.
• Mondreti, P. V., & Malar, G. (2018). Sibling Disposition towards Children with Special Needs. In Handbook of Research on Psychosocial Perspectives of Human Communication Disorders (pp. 97-109). IGI Global.
• Mortimer, K. (2008),
• Nairn, A. & Mayo, E. (2009), Consumer Kids, Constable Robinson, London, UK.