Child-Driven Change

Research Focus

This research area explores how children and their families navigate consumption choices that foster individual and societal well-being. Our research investigates how different types of communication, such as school-based interventions, social and digital media, interpersonal discussions, can encourage these positive and meaningful behaviours in families. A central focus is on family socialization processes, exploring how parents and children influence and co-construct each other’s attitudes and practices around transformative consumption. We study the bidirectional influences within these relationships, uncovering how everyday interactions shape these positive choices. By researching the mechanisms that make positive behaviours easier and more attractive for children, we aim to inform policies, institutions and organisations that support children and their families in exercising agency to transformative consumer practices. 

Related Projects 

• Decoding Reverse Socialization: Exploring intergenerational Knowledge Transfer in Family Consumption — Bo Dhondt

• Interdisciplinary project: Enhancing food security among children in Flanders

Principal Investigator

Dieneke Van de Sompel

Contact: Dieneke.VandeSompel@UGent.be