Isaksen, Katja Jezkova, and Stuart Roper. “The Commodification of Self-Esteem: Branding and British Teenagers.” Psychology and Marketing29, no. 3 (February 7, 2012): 117-35. Accessed March 24, 2018.

The Commodification of Self‐Esteem: Branding and British Teenagers, by Katja Jezkova Isaksen and Stuart Roper. I found it through Wiley Online, using the Redlands library website.  According to the article’s abstract, the study explores the role that consumption has in British adolescents’ lives in terms of their own perception. It particularly focused on its role in forming and maintaining self-esteem. In order to answer their research question, the authors examined concepts like materialism, brand loyalty, self-esteem, and socioeconomic status. The authors found from the focus groups that as a result of peer pressure and the desire to “fit in” among their peers, consuming the right things at the right time is crucial for social acceptance, forming friendships, and thus, self-esteem as a whole. I chose this article because it touches on socioeconomic status and the way that can affect some children’s access to these commodities that help them “fit in.” According to the study, however, children from low-income families were actually more eager to want to purchase the more expensive brands. This article’s topic is about the role consumption plays in forming self-esteem in adolescents. The question is “What role does consumption play in the formation and maintaining of self-esteem in British adolescents?” The type of data needed to answer the question is reports of acts, behavior, and events. In order to collect this data, the authors used six focus groups comprising of 20 individuals. This study is qualitative, as the data is not numerical, and comes from focus groups.

This research is extremely interesting to me, and closely relates to what I want to answer with my own research question. The research is published in a respected journal, so that leads me to believe that the authors are trustworthy and the data collected was done so properly and in accordance with guidelines. The conclusions that the authors came to are logical and make sense sociologically, but I would like to build on their conclusions with my own proposed research question. The most interesting aspect of this research is that the authors concluded that while adolescents have the most awareness regarding the role of branding, advertising, and peer pressure, they are seemingly unable to resist them.