In today''s rapidly changing market environment, people are having difficulties with rational consumption, which makes the issue of consumer socialization even more important these days. Consumer socialization during adolescence is particularly critical since it can have influences even throughout adulthood. Adolescence is characterized by rapid physical and mental developments. Thus, the characteristics of consumer socialization during adolescent period will widely vary according to the growth stages(elementary students, middle school students, high school students) and gender.
This study set out to investigate the characteristics of consumer socialization according to the growth stages and gender of adolescents during the period. And furthermore analyze the moderating effects of reliability in the process of consumer socialization based on the assumption that adolescents'' reliability for the efficient causes of consumer socialization would have moderating effects of reinforcing their influences.
The questionnaire survey was conducted during October 1 ~ October 15 2014, and 324 fifth graders in elementary school in the former stage of adolescence, 337 eighth graders in middle school in the middle stage of adolescence, and 321 11th graders in high school in the latter stage of adolescence were selected.

The main results were follows:
First, the elementary school students showed a higher level of consumer socialization than the middle and high school students. As for consumer socialization according to gender, girls had a higher level of consumer socialization than boys. For boys, the level of consumer socialization and consumer role attitude decreases; Consumer functions was no changes; And the level of consumer knowledge increased as they grew up. Whereas for girls, the level of consumer socialization decreased; Consumer functions, role attitude, and the level of consumer knowledge increased as they grew up.
Second, as for the level of interactions with the efficient causes of consumer socialization according to the growth stages of adolescents, it decreased with the mother and school and increased with friends and mass media. The level of interactions with the efficient causes was higher among girls than boys in general. While girls decreased in interactions with the school and increased in interactions with friends, TV, and the Internet as they grew up, boys decreased in interactions with the mother and school and increased in interactions with friends, TV, and the Internet as they grew up.
Third, the study examined the effects of consumer socialization agents on consumer socialization itself according to the growth stages of adolescents. And the results showed that mother had positive effects only on it among the middle and high school students, that TV had negative effects on it among the elementary, middle, and high school students, and that the school had positive effects on it among the elementary and middle school students.
Fourth, of all the components of consumer socialization, only internet had positive effects on consumer knowledge among all the subject groups. Mother and school had positive impacts on consumer functions among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students. Friends had positive impacts on consumer functions only among high school students, and internet had positive impacts on them only among middle school students. In addition, TV had no impacts on consumer functions among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students.
TV had negative influences on consumer role attitude among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students. Friends had no influences on it among all the adolescent groups since the bonds between peer groups became reduced according to the greater importance of study than in the past.
Fifth, different characteristics were observed in the effects of efficient causes of consumer socialization on consumer socialization itself according to the gender of adolescents. The mother had no influences at all on girls among all the groups of elementary, middle and high school students, whereas she was a significant factor for the male middle and high school students.
TV had no influences on boys in elementary and middle school and started to have negative ones on them in high school. Contrary to the case of boys, TV had negative influences on girls in elementary and middle school and no more influences on them in high school.
The school had effects on the consumer socialization of boys only in elementary and middle school and significant positive effects on that of girls among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students.
Sixth, the study also examined the influences of efficient causes of consumer socialization on the components of consumer socialization according to gender, and the results were as follows: the efficient causes of consumer socialization had no influences on consumer knowledge both in boys and girls among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students.
Mother had positive influences on consumer functions in boys among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students and on them in girls only in elementary and middle school. School had positive influences on consumer functions in boys in elementary and middle school and in girls in elementary and high school.
TV had negative influences on consumer role attitude both in boys and girls among all the groups of elementary, middle, and high school students according to the growth stages except for high school girls.
Seventh, the study looked into the moderating effects of reliability on each of the efficient causes in their influential process for consumer socialization according to the growth stages of adolescents. The results show that only reliability for the school had moderating effects of reinforcing the positive influences among all the subjects.
Reliability had no moderating effects on consumer knowledge, one of the components of consumer socialization, among all the elementary, middle, and high school students.
Reliability for TV had reverse moderating effects on consumer functions among all the subjects, and reliability for internet and school turned out to reinforce the positive influences. When the effects were examined according to the stages of growth, reliability for friends had negative reverse moderating effects among elementary school students, and reliability for the school had moderating effects of reinforcing the positive influences among middle school students.
Reliability for TV had moderating effects of reinforcing the negative influences further on consumer role attitude among all the subjects. When the effects were examined according to the stages of growth, reliability for TV had moderating effects of reinforcing the negative influences further among elementary school students with reliability for the Internet having negative reverse moderating effects. Reliability for TV had moderating effects of reinforcing the negative influences further among middle school students.
Finally, the present study is significant in that it investigated the overall consumer socialization of adolescents that had changed in the modern society, considering that there were few researches on the topic for the last ten years or so. It also claims its significance for its attempt to examine the moderating effects of reliability for the efficient causes of consumer socialization on the consumer socialization of adolescents.