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Keywords:
changing values,
childless couples,
modernized
lifecycle, sex role
norms, attitudinal
and consumption
patterns
Dong Hwan Lee
Associate Professor of
Marketing,
School of Business,
Manhattan College,
Riverdale,
New York 10471, USA
E-mail: dhlee@
manhattan.edu
Charles M.
Schaninger
Professor of
Marketing,
School of Business,
University of Albany,
Albany,
New York 12222, USA
Tel: +1 518 442 4943
E-mail: c.schaninger@
albany.edu
Attitudinal and consumptiondifferences among traditionaland nontraditional childlesscouple householdsReceived (in revised form): 14th November, 2002
Dong Hwan Leeis Associate Professor of Marketing at the School of Business, Manhattan College. His
research areas include consumer information processing and choice behaviour,
family/household consumption behaviour, consumer satisfaction, country image
effects, and cross-cultural managerial issues. He is a recipient of the American
Marketing Associations doctoral dissertation award, and has extensive industry and
consulting experience in international business and marketing.
Charles M. Schaningeris Professor of Marketing at the School of Business, The University at Albany, State
University of New York. His research has focused on changing values and
demographics, sociological influences on consumption, applied segmentation issues,
and more recently on interactive database marketing. The order of authorship is
strictly alphabetical, both authors are equal co-authors.
AbstractThis study develops a classification scheme that effectively separates delayed marriage andtrue childless couples from delayed empty nest couples, newlywed and traditional emptynest couples. Unlike extant traditional and modernised life cycle models, this approach
separates true childless and delayed marriage childless couple households from theirtraditional counterparts using the couples length of marriage and wifes age. It also usescouples ages at marriage to separate delayed from the traditional empty nest households.The findings clearly indicate that nontraditional childless couples differ from theirtraditional counterparts in underlying values, sex role norms, and attitudes, as well as in
food and beverage consumption and major durable acquisition patterns. Implications ofthis classification scheme for comprehensive life cycle models and future research andmanagerial applications of these findings are also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Marriedcoupleswith no children
represent the fastest growinghousehold
type in the1990sand 2000s (Ambry,
1992),withaprojectedrateof
childlessness of between20 percent and
25percentforbabyboomerwomen
(Morganand Chen,1992). Thosehighly
educated career-oriented womenwho
intendtohavetheirfirstchildatlaterages
arealsomorelikelytoremain
permanentlychildless (Heaton etal.,
1999).Thesetrends, combined with the
upscale socio-economic profileof
childlesscouples,makethem an
increasinglyimportant marketsegment.
Although demographershave
documented suchfundamentalchanges
as delayed marriage, delayed
childbearingand childlessness,
particularly amongmore modern,
educated workingwomen (eg,Riche,
1991), empirical research on their
consumption-relatedbehaviouris scant.
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The literature suggests that
nontraditionalchildlesscouple
households shouldevidenceunique
demographic, attitudinaland
expenditureprofiles (Scanzoni, 1975;
Schaninger and Danko,1993;
Yankelovich, 1981).However,theevidenceinsupportofthisviewislargely
observational or basedon indirect
comparisonsof combined younger
newlyweds/childless couples to full nest
families (eg,BloomandBennett,1986).
Most modernised life cyclemodels,
includingthe GillyandEnis model (1981)
and demography schemes (American
Demographics, 1992, 1993) aggregate
nontraditionalchildlesscouples with
theirtraditionalcounterpartsbased on
current household compositionand
standard agecutoffs, in spite of previous
criticisms (Wagner and Hanna, 1983).
Thus,young newlyweds are combined
withdelayed marriages and younger
childless couples, as are middle-aged
childlessand empty nest couples. The
amalgamation of similarly constituted
yet distinctively unalike traditionaland
nontraditional childless couple
households is inconsistentwith modern
sociologicaltheory, whichholds that
nontraditionalvalues and attitudes lead
to individualistic lifestyles andconsumptionpatterns and to delayed
lifestyle progression.
To date, no studies have presented
conceptual underpinnings or developed
operational definitions that effectively
separate delayed marriage/childbearing
couples from newlyweds, or separate
true childless middle aged from empty
nest and older couples. The only
research evidence suggestive of
distinctive value and consumption
profiles is indirect ie, based on
examining those with strong self-
fulfilment motivation, or on comparing
coupleswho have not yet had children to
those who have had them shortly after
an early marriage (eg, Bloom and
Bennett, 1986). The main purpose of this
paper is to develop conceptually driven
operational definitions that effectively
separate various nontraditional childless
couple types from their traditional
counterparts, and empirically determine
whether they indeed capture meaningful
and significant attitudinal and
consumption differences.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The demography and traditional
consumer economics perspective
Demographers have examined the
growth of delayed childbearing and
childless couple households from the
traditional consumer economics
perspective summarised by Wells and
Gubars (1966) life cycle article, which
focuses on changes in family roles (eg,
parent, homemaker, breadwinner) and
thus household expenditure patterns
which occur as a result of changes in
household composition (eg, children).
They have shown that traditional
homemaker-wife families tend to be of
lower educational and occupational
status, marry early with fewer economic
advantages, have children earlier, and
have more children than couples who
delay marriage and delay or forego
having children (Ambry, 1993; Riche,
1991). Childlessness, however, is higher
among women who complete college,
delay marriage and pursue careers(Ambry, 1992). Bloom (1984) found that
women of higher educational,
occupational and income status tend to
be older when they have their first child,
leading to greater income and
discretionary income, due to both
spouses employment at high-paying
jobs, the wifes continuing to work
longer, and the absence of increased
child-related costs for food, clothing,
childcare and education. These greater
financial resources lead delayed
childbearing couples to accumulate
assets at a faster rate and spend a larger
share of their income on luxuries,
compared with their more traditional
full-nest counterparts.
Bloom and Bennett (1986) extended
this focus to childless couples in the
broader sense by including those who
Journal of Consumer Behaviour Vol. 2, 3, 248268#Henry Stewart Publications 1472-0817 249
Attitudinal and consumption differences
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home. Various studies have shown that
childless couples spend more of their
high discretionary income on cars,
home entertainment devices,
recreational goods, and on imported
wines and various forms of distilled
alcohol (Ambry, 1992; 1993; Bloom,1984; Bloom and Bennett, 1986;
Blossfeld and Huinink, 1991; Riche,
1991; Schaninger and Danko, 1993).
The modern sociological perspective:
Changing values and sex role norms
Sociologists have attributed the growth
of modern sex role norms and womens
career orientation as leading to a
pronounced shift towards
individualistic values and self-
fulfilment aspirations and to a decline in
traditional familial and religious values
including the Protestant ethic (Scanzoni,
1979; Yankelovich, 1981). Yankelovich
(1981), a marketer sharing that
perspective, showed that individuals
who hold nontraditional values and
norms tend to be younger and of higher
socioeconomic, educational and
occupational status, and that their
alternative values lead them to forego
or delay marriage and parenthood, and
to pursue individualistic (non-familial)
lifestyles. They tend to engage in moresocial, cultural and physical leisure
activities, and have more health-
conscious eating patterns, as evidenced
by increased consumption of natural
and nutritious foods, and avoidance of
fatty and junk foods. They are also more
involved in gourmet cooking, wine and
candlelit meals, new restaurants and
new ethnic foods. Rather than acquiring
traditional kitchen and laundry
appliances associated with home-
ownership and having children, these
self-fulfilers tend to purchase durables
reflecting their individualistic
recreational and leisure activity pursuits
products such as foreign sports cars
and camera or stereo equipment and
also spend more on entertainment,
recreation and social activities, holidays
and recreational travel. It is important to
note that the focus of that research has
been on characterising individuals with
modern values and norms, and not on
individuals or couples who delay or
forego marriage and childbearing.
While similarities in values, lifestyles
and, hence, consumption patterns areintuitive, they have not yet been
empirically tested, but are anticipated
for the nontraditional childless couple
classifications developed in this study.
Although sex role norms are likely to
influence consumption patterns and
expenditures, few empirical studies
have directly examined such influences.
Buss and Schaninger (1987) proposed
that sex role modern couples should
evidence healthier, more gourmet-
oriented eating habits, and use services
and restaurants more than traditional
couples. Sex role modern couples are
those in which both spouses hold
nontraditional sex role norms regarding
the appropriateness of work and career
versus family, motherhood, and
homemaker roles; as well as gender
based role specialisation. Sex role norms
influence a wifes work and career
involvement as well as childbearing,
and the subsequent wifes career
involvement. Thus, they influence the
likelihood of work and time-relatedstresses, as well as how the family
might cope with those pressures. Sex
role modern couples should be more
likely to respond to such pressures by
nontraditional division of labour, by
decreasing effort put into the traditional
wifes tasks, and by buying outside
products or services to save time. Sex
role norms interact with social class to
influence what behaviour is regarded as
appropriate for dealing with work and
time pressures. Thus, sex role modern
career couples should be more likely to
hire a maid or landscaping service, to
eat meals prepared away from home,
consume cocktails before dinner or wine
with dinner to reduce stresses, but
spend less effort on shopping, meal
planning and preparation, household
cleaning, etc. Such behaviour, however,
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would be inconsistent with a traditional
blue-collar familys norms and roles.
The underlying theory and limited
findings converge with those of
Yankelovich (1981), and indirectly
support the expectation of similar
characteristics for nontraditionalchildless couples. The converse is that
traditional families, who marry and
have children at a young age, should
emphasise the wifes shopper role, own
more kitchen and laundry appliances,
prepare more meals from scratch, but
consume fewer take-away, or restaurant
foods than delayed marriage or
childless couple households. While
these propositions are intuitively
appealing, they are based on indirect
research evidence and, while theory
driven, are speculative and lack
empirical validation. It is the authors
intent to rectify this situation by
developing conceptually sound
operational definitions and empirically
documenting whether unique
attitudinal and consumption profiles
distinguish delayed marriage, delayed
childbearing and childless couples from
their traditional counterparts of similar
household composition.
Operational definitions of childlesscouple households
While demographers (Ambry, 1992;
Bloom, 1984; Bloom and Bennett, 1986)
have identified delayed marriage,
delayed childbearing and foregone
childbearing as important demographic
trends, they have not attempted to
formally develop conceptual or
operational definitions to classify
individual households into such
categories. Rather, they have looked at
how age at marriage, age at birth offirst
child, or childlessness, vary with other
demographic variables such as
educational and occupational status and
income (eg, Ambry, 1992; Bloom, 1984).
The authors could find no studies that
developed definitions of delayed
marriage couples at the conceptual
level, or that attempted to systematically
separate delayed marriages from
newlyweds or childless couples at the
operational level. Although Bloom
(1984) described the characteristics of
women who delay childbearing, no
actual data were presented, and the
basis of his descriptions was not clear.While his descriptions imply that age at
birth offirst child was examined to
separate couples which delayed having
children from those having them shortly
after a young marriage, no operational
definitions were presented. Bloom and
Bennett (1986) clearly combined
newlyweds with couples who either
delayed or chose to forego childbearing
and may have included younger empty
nest couples in their examination of
young couples without children. Their
age cutoff for younger is not specified,
and it is not clear whether they used
wives aged 45, or a younger age cutoff.
The resulting operational definition is
ambiguous, and results in a
heterogeneous category, lumping
traditional early marriage newlyweds
and younger empty nest households
with their delayed marriage and truly
childless counterparts. Given the
current status of childless couple
research, the authors believe the
development of unambiguousoperational definitions is a crucial
stepping-stone in determining whether
different attitudinal, value and
consumption patterns exist among such
household types.
A careful review of previous family
life cycle studies provides a solid base on
which to develop operational definitions
of nontraditional delayed marriage or
childless couple households. Family
studies often employed very clear
operational definitions of traditional
newlywed and empty nest categories
explicitly designed to exclude delayed
marriage and childless couples. Two
studies excluded childless couples
classed as those married more than five
years without children (Spanier et al.,
1975; Spanier et al, 1979), and another
excludedthem if the wife was age 40or
252 Journal of Consumer Behaviour Vol. 2, 3, 248268 #Henry Stewart Publications 1472-0817
Dong Hwan Lee and Charles M. Schaninger
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less and did not expect children or if the
wife was over 40 (Rexroat and Shehan,
1987). The authors couldfindno
published attempt to separate delayed
marriage or delayed childbearing
couples from childless couples. Most
previous operational definitions ofchildless couple households did not
delineate childless, delayed marriage, or
delayed childbearing couples; or they
aggregated them with traditional
newlyweds or empty nest households. In
this paper, the authors attempt to
develop an improved childless couple
classification scheme that explicitly
separates nontraditional childless couple
types from their traditional counterparts.
METHOD
The data set used by this research was
from a larger-scale study examining
various aspects of household
consumption, reported in Schaninger
and Danko (1993). Systematic random
sampling, with three callbacks, was
used to recruit a sample from a recently
issued telephone directory of a top 50
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
This MSA is widely used as a test
market, with nearly 95 per cent of the
households having telephones, and the
unlisted rate was the 93rd lowest of thetop 100 markets. Of 2,790 households
attempted to be reached, 508 were
unreachable after three attempts and
111 had telephones not in service. Of the
2,171 households reached, 1,160 agreed
to participate and were sent the survey.
Of this mailing, 307 usable, 19 address
unknown and 10 unusable surveys were
returned. Three additional mailings of
500 households each were conducted on
nonrespondent subsamples: first-wave
nonrespondents, resulting in 54 usable
responses and 10 undeliverables; those
who declined to participate, resulting in
34 usable returns and 37 undeliverables;
and those initially unreachable after
three telephone attempts, resulting in 49
usable responses and 27 undeliverables.
No significant differences were found
between the three latter samples and the
original sample for percentages of
singles, married couples with or
without children, home ownership,
working or nonworking wife families,
or combined family income, or for Gilly-
Enis life cycle stages. Thus, the four
subsamples were combined to yield atotal of 444 households. The final
sample of 444 households represents a
response rate of 17.2 per cent of the
initial telephone book sample with
working telephones that were reachable
by mail. The combined sample did not
significantly differ from MSA census
figures or nationwide census estimates
on the percentage of owner-occupied
housing, age, marital status, presence of
children, or mens and womens labour
force participation. A comparison of the
cross-classification of abridged family
life cycle stages (husband under 45,
no children under 18; husbands of any
age, children under 6; husbands of any
age, children 617 only; husband 45 or
older, no children under 18) and wifes
work status (working/nonworking)
between this sample and the 1986 US
census estimates was also not significant
(X2 7:41, df 7, ns). Average atmarriage and at birth offirst child for
both men and women were nearly
identical to 1990 census estimates. Thus,the sample appears to be reasonably
free of frame and non-response errors,
and to be demographically
representative of both the MSA and the
US census distributions of households.
Household classification (never
married, divorced, separated, widowed,
married couple, or unmarried
cohabiting couple), years married
(living together for unmarried couples),
previous marital status for both (of
married or cohabiting couples), ages
and retirement status of male and
female adult household heads (and
other adult members), and the number
of children both at home and away, in
four childrens age categories (under 6,
612, 1318, 19+) were collected to
operationalise life cycle categories and
to generate a priori comparisons.
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Consumption frequencies for 46 food
and beverage items were originally
measured. A subset of 26 items was
selected for analysis here, which
directly bear on the general
propositions of expected differences
between traditional and nontraditionalchildless categories. Excluded were
items intended to capture consumption
differences between full nest and
various bachelor categories. The 26
items were grouped into four areas:
healthy food and beverages (eg,
unsweetened cereal, fresh fruit, rice,
bottled juice, homemade soup),
restaurant-prepared meals (eg, dinner
out, take-away Chinese), less healthy
quick foods (eg, hamburger, hotdog,
potato/corn chips) and alcoholic
beverages (eg, beer, light beer, various
wine, distilled spirits). Each household
was also asked to estimate the current
value of major possessions, including
primary and second home, first, second
and third car, truck/van, camper/RV,
boat/motor/trailer and motorcycle/
ATV. For stereos, first, second and
third TVs, personal computers, VCRs,
satellite dishes, and living room, dining
room and bedroom furniture,
ownership checklists and interval
purchase price-range scales were used,with median interval dollar values used
for analysis. Measures of attitudes and
values related to consumption
consisted of 35 Likert items: sex role
norms (nine items), work and time
pressures (seven items), self-fulfilment
aspirations (nine items) and traditional
family and moral values (ten items),
from sources described in Schaninger
and Danko (1993).
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
As stated previously, the purpose here
was to develop optimal operational
definitions that separate nontraditional
delayed marriage and childless couple
households from their traditional
newlywed and empty nest
counterparts, and empirically assess
whether the combined classification
scheme captures proposed attitudinal
and consumption differences. This
approach is also extended to determine
whether nontraditional delayed empty
nest households differ from their
traditional counterparts who marry
and have children at an earlier age. Inthe authors view, an optimal
classification scheme should result in
categories:
of roughly equal sample sizes,
avoiding sparseness,
near the median ages for birth of
first child for cutoffs,
producing the strongest significance
in consumption and attitudinal
contrasts, hence maximising
between-group variation while
minimising that within, the probleminherent in aggregating
nontraditional with traditional
childless couples in most
modernised life cycle models.
The basic approach is to iteratively
develop a modernised childless couple
classification scheme through a priori
MANOVA and t-test comparisons
among alternative categories. A series of
one-tailed t-tests were used for
univariate tests (p , 0.05), augmented
by multivariate tests. Before developingoperational definitions, it was
determined whether remarried childless
couple households should be
aggregated with their first marriage
counterparts, or maintained as separate
categories. The starting point was the
modified Gilly-Enis model suggested by
Schaninger and Danko (1993), using
husbands retirement rather than age 65
to separate older from childless
couples. First, alternative ways were
examined to optimally classify delayed
marriages, true childless couple
households and newlyweds, and then
the authors proceeded to determine
whether delayed empty nest households
differ from traditional empty nest
households and older couples. After
sequentially developing the optimal
treatment of various childless couple
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categories, the performance of the
resultant overall childless couple
classification scheme was empirically
evaluated.
Treatment of remarriages
The issue of how to treat remarriedcouples with no children vis-a-vis their
first marriage counterparts has not
been empirically ascertained in the
interdisciplinary literature. Both
Murphy and Staples (1979) and Gilly
and Enis (1982) stipulated that
remarriages be combined with their
first marriage counterparts. This
treatment is theoretically consistent
with the notion that positions within
the current household, rather than
previous life cycle history, determine
household consumption patterns, as
suggested by Hill and Rodgers (1964).
It is probably justified, based on the
findings of a few significant attitudinal,
expenditure or demographic
differences between remarriages and
first marriages (Macklin, 1980; Price-
Bonham and Balswick, 1980).
However, it is surprising to note that it
has not been empirically validated in
the demography, consumer economics
or consumer behaviour literatures and
this study attempts to rectify thatoversight. A series of a priori
comparisons between remarriages and
their first marriage counterparts
revealed no significant attitudinal,
durable value or food and beverage
consumption differences for modified
Gilly-Enis model newlyweds or
childless couples, or for true empty
nest couples, supporting their
aggregation. Modest increases in the
significance of attitudinal and
consumption differences resulted when
remarriages were aggregated with their
first marriage counterparts, due to
increased sample sizes and smaller
standard errors. This finding
represents the first empirical support
for the aggregation approach proposed
by Gilly and Enis (1981) and Murphy
and Staples (1979).
Delayed marriage and childless
couples
Next, it was investigated whether
households that delay or forego
progression through traditional life
stages differ from traditional ones.
Schaninger and Danko (1993)recommended optimal categories be
determined by specific a priori
comparisons interactively with flexible,
empirically determined age cutoffs to
separate delayed marriages, delayed
full nest and true childless couples from
their traditional counterparts. They
advocated using age at marriage to
identify delayed marriages and age at
birth offirst child for delayed full nests,
rather than using the current age of the
head of the household. The authors first
separated delayed (childless) marriages
(based on wifes age at marriage) from
true childless couples (married more
than five years, no children regardless
of age of marriage) and from
newlyweds. However, this resulted in
small sample sizes (n, 15) for both
delayed marriages and childless
couples. Furthermore, attitudinal and
consumption profile comparisons of the
two were substantively equivalent and
did not even approach statistical
significance. Therefore, they werecombined to enhance parsimony and to
permit comparisons of delayed
marriage/childless couples to
newlyweds and empty nest households,
in accordance with the approach
recommended by Schaninger and
Danko (1993).
Several alternative operational
definitions separating newlyweds from
delayed marriage/childless couples
were initially examined, based on age
at marriage to identify delayed
marriages, length of marriage to identify
childless couples, as well as a simple
wives age split. To identify delayed
marriages, the starting point was the
median wifes age at marriage. Cutoffs
were tentatively examined both just
above and just below the median age at
marriage, and it was chosen to further
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examine those that yielded nearly equal
sample sizes for delayed marriage/
childless couples versus newlyweds. To
identify childless couples, the starting
point was that used previously in the
family literature more than five years
length of marriage, with cutoffs of fourand six years also examined empirically.
For the simple wives age split, cutoffs
were examined just below the median
wifes age, below and including it, and
one year above it. All of these
operational definitions produced
significant consumption differences for
food and beverage consumption and
dollar values of major durable
acquisitions. That which resulted in the
strongest pattern of consumption
contrasts and the most nearly equal
sample sizes (n. 20) was based on
length of marriage and wifes current
age. If a couple had been married for
five years or less without children and
the wife was 32 years old or less, they
were classified as newlyweds (NW). If
married more than five years with no
children, or the wifes age was 33 or
over, couples were classified as delayed
marriage/childless couples (DM/CC).
This approach is conceptually similar to
measures employed by previously cited
family researchers, and resulted incomparable (n. 20) sample sizes.
Empty nest couples (EN) consisted of
those with no children at home, but
children 18 or over living away from
home, in which the male head of the
household was still actively
participating in the labour force. The
interested reader is referred to
Appendix Table A1 for attitudinal
profiles of these groups.
The above operationalisations
resulted in significant multivariate and
univariate differences between NW and
DM/CC couples for food and beverage
consumption and dollar values of major
assets and of home entertainment
devices and furniture. Attitudinally,
DM/CC couples were equivalent (not
significantly different from) to younger
NWs, yet contrasted strongly and
sharply from their EN counterparts, as
expected. Modern sex role norms, self-
fulfilment aspirations and
nontraditional values were shown by
Schaninger and Danko (1993) to be
strongly associated with younger age
and to be highest for young bachelorsand NWs. Despite being older, DM/
CCs were, in effect, tied with younger
NWs in holding the most modern sex
role norms, nontraditional family and
religious values, and experiencing work
and time pressures. The more detailed
patterns offindings for substantive
attitudinal and consumption differences
are discussed later. At this stage, the
principal objective was to develop an
optimal operational definition of DM/
CC couples that yielded significant
attitudinal and consumption contrasts
to NW and to EN couples overall. It was
necessary to first develop workable
operational definitions separating NW,
DM/CC and EN couples prior to the
next stage, in which it was examined
whether it was worthwhile to separate
traditional (early marriage) from
delayed EN households.
Attitudinal comparisons of DM/CC
to EN couples were highly significant.
The former were more sex role modern,
and wives felt greater work and timepressures and held less traditional
values than EN spouses. Seven of the
nine husbands sex role norm items
were significant at p , 0.05, and the
remaining two attained marginal
significance (p , 0:10). Multivariate
significance was observed for wives
attitudes, and over two-thirds of the sex
role norm, work and time pressure and
traditional value items attained
univariate significance. One-third of the
univariate food and beverage contrasts
attained significance (p , 0.05) in the
direction expected. DM/CC couples
consumed more yogurt, herbal tea, take-
away Chinese food and premium
domestic wine, while EN couples
consumed more frozen entrees, hot
dogs, hamburgers, homemade soup and
distilled spirits. DM/CC couples also
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had significantly higher dollar values
for stereos, second TVs, VCRs, second
and third cars and boats compared to
EN couples, consistent with higher
discretionary income and with the
authors expectations.
Traditional and delayed empty nest
couples
Next, it was examined whether
attitudinal and consumption differences
exist between traditional empty nest
households (TEN) and their
nontraditional counterparts who
married and had children at a later age.
TENs were defined as those (with adult
children living away from home)
married before the husband was 27
years old and before the wife reached
age 25. If couples married after the
husband was 27 or the wife was 25 they
were classified as delayed empty nest
(DEN). These cutoffs are consistent with
Bloom (1984) examination of delayed
childbearing and with the general
patterns of statistics reported by Lazar
(1994) and Riche (1991) and are quite
close to the 1990 census estimates for
median age at marriage for men and
women reported in American
Demographics (1992, 1993). As discussed
previously, couples who delay marriageand childbearing should be higher in
educational and occupational status,
more likely to pursue dual careers and
have higher discretionary income. Thus,
DEN couples should evidence food and
beverage consumption and durable
goods acquisition patterns characteristic
of the upper middle class, similar to the
patterns identified by Bloom (1984) and
Bloom and Bennett (1986). Significant
differences in food and beverage
consumption patterns and in dollar
values of home entertainment devices
and furniture, as well as primary cars
and trucks/vans were observed
between DEN and TEN couples. As
expected, DEN couples consumed
yogurt, frozen juice, rice, homemade
soup and imported wine more
frequently; they also consumed hot
dogs, regular sodas and dinners out at
restaurants less frequently than TEN
couples. They also evidenced higher
mean values for personal computers
and campers/RVs (as expected), but,
unexpectedly, had lower mean values
for stereos, living and dining roomfurniture and principal cars and trucks/
vans.
While previous research suggests that
couples who delay marriage and
childbearing tend to be more sex role
modern, attitudinal contrasts were
expected to be weak between middle-
aged DEN and TEN couples because of
their comparable age and structural
equivalence (no children living at home,
but adult children away). Consistent
with this expectation, attitudinal
contrasts between the two middle-aged
EN groups, particularly for wives, were
generally weak. Four of nine items in
the sex role norms and traditional
family value sets (only one at the 0.05
level in both sets) were significant for
husbands. It was thus decided it would
be more appropriate to examine not
only their direct contrasts, but to also
examine the contrasts of both groups
with their most contiguous life cycle
counterparts. Accordingly, contrasts
were examined of both to older couples(OC no children living at home, male
head of household retired) and to DM/
CC couples. The expectation was that
DEN couples would evidence stronger
(directional) contrasts to OC couples
than would TEN couples to OC couples,
and that contrasts of TEN couples
should evidence stronger contrasts to
DM/CC couples than would those of
DEN to DM/CC couples.
Contrasts of DEN to OC were
consistently significant at both the
multivariate and univariate levels for
both spouses across all four attitudinal
subsets, while those of TEN to OC
couples were notably weaker, in line
with the authors expectations.
Contrasts of TEN to DM/CC couples
also produced very strong results in
the direction expected. For example,
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both TEN spouses were significantly
less sex role modern and held more
traditional values than DM/CC
couples, with over two-thirds of both
sets of items significant as anticipated.
Few significant attitudinal differences
were observed between DM/CC andDEN couples, in spite of likely age
cohort effects, which were observed to
a limited degree for sex role norms
(four of nine items for both spouses)
and for wives (but not husbands)
work-related time pressures (three of
seven items). The overall pattern of
contrasts of DM/CC and DEN couples
to adjacent categories was consistent
with the authors expectations and
general proposition. Additional food
and beverage and dollar values of
major acquisition contrasts of DEN and
TEN couples to OC and DM/CC
couples are discussed in the next
section.
Evaluation of the proposed childless
couple classification scheme
The proposed scheme, unlike the extant
life cycle models, separates
nontraditional childless couple types
from their traditional counterparts. It
consists offive categories: newlyweds
(NW), delayed marriage/childlesscouples (DM/CC), traditional (TEN)
and delayed (DEN) empty nest couples,
and older (retired) couples (OC).
Detailed MANOVA results and a priori
comparisons of food and beverages and
for dollar values of durable goods are
presented in Tables 1 and 2. A separate
table for husbands and wives values
and attitudes is not presented in order
to conserve space, and because the
principal focus is on consumption
differences. Interested parties can obtain
that table from the authors. The overall
univariate F-tests are conservative tests
of the general propositions, in that they
test for differences across all five
childless couple categories, while the
general proposition is that differences
will exist between specific pairs of
categories, but not between others. For
example, it is proposed that TENs
should differ from DM/CCs and from
DENs, but should be similar to OCs;
and that DM/CCs should differ from
TENs, but not DENs. Thus, the between
group mean s-square estimates, which
are based on bi-directional tests acrossall five groups, would be overly
conservative. Marginal significance
levels (p, 0.10) are thus footnoted in
the tables for the benefit of interested
readers who wish to minimise the type
II errors likely to occur for the modest
sample sizes involved in these overly
conservative overall model tests and
related a priori comparisons.
The proposed CC classification
scheme produced significant
multivariate F-values for all criteria sets,
and all reached the 0.005 level of
multivariate significance. Based on
values of (1 Wilks L), the proposed
scheme accounts for over 80 per cent of
the multivariate variation of both
husbands and wives attitudes, as well
as of food and beverage consumption;
for nearly 60 per cent of that of
monetary values of home entertainment
devices and furniture; and for nearly 50
per cent of that for major durable assets.
The large number of marginal
significance counts for food andbeverage consumption appears to be
due to small category sample sizes
(hence larger standard errors), and to
absorbing a relatively large degree of
freedom for the between-group variance
estimates for these conservative five-
group F-tests, as discussed previously.
Consistent with expectations, NW
couples consumed more less healthy
quick foods (eg, hamburger, soda and
canned spaghetti/ravioli) than DM/CC
couples, whereas DM/CC couples
consumed more wine than NW couples.
NW couples consumed takeaway and
fast foods (but not dinners out) more
frequently than DM/CC couples. This
finding appears to reflect a NW dietary
pattern still in transition from young
single lifestyles, and also probably
represents the greater gourmet
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orientation and quality/flavour
emphasis of DM/CC couples. DM/CC
couples had significantly higher values
for primary homes, boats, third cars,
campers/RVs, personal computers,
second TVs, and dining room and
bedroom furniture than NW couples.
This can be attributed to the longer
employment of DM/CC couples at
higher occupation jobs than NW
couples, resulting in greater
discretionary income and savings,
which allowed them to be able to
purchase durable goods that conform to
their individualistic leisure-oriented
lifestyles, as anticipated.
As shown in Table 1, DM/CC and
DEN couples tended to consume more
healthy foods and beverages, fewer less
healthy quick foods, but more light beer,
imported and domestic wines, than NW
couples or their TEN counterparts.
These nontraditional DM/CC and DEN
couples were heavier users, while TEN
couples were lighter users of yogurt,
most forms of juice, herbal teas and rice;
and of imported, regular and premium
domestic wines. An opposite pattern of
heavier usage of less healthy quick
foods and beverages emerged for TEN
couples (hot dogs, hamburgers and
hard spirits). The general pattern of
these contrasts of DM/CC and DEN
couples to their traditional counterparts
supports the authors general
proposition, and is consistent with
Table 1 Childless couple category food and beverage consumption patterns
Items/Categories NW DM/CC TEN DEN OC Fcc(Cell size/df) (n 24) (n 21) (n 27) (n 20) (n 38) (4,125)
Healthy foods and beveragesUnsweetened cereal 4.08abc 4.71d 5.15a 5.30b 5.71cd 2.60x
Fresh fruit 5.79a 5.76 5.96 6.30 6.29a 0.92Yogurt 3.46a 4.00a 2.74aab 3.85b 3.13 1.53v
Fresh vegetables 5.13a 5.43 5.41a 5.70 5.90aa 1.11Frozen vegetables 4.54aa 4.81 5.26a 4.90b 5.58ab 1.96w
Rice 4.13a 4.38ab 3.82ab 4.85abc 3.74bc 2.40w
Homemade soup 2.79ab 2.76cd 3.04a 3.60aac 3.84bd 3.69y
Frozen juice 4.08a 4.33b 4.00c 5.55aabc 4.61a 1.69v
Bottled juice 4.75aa 4.14 3.78a 4.35b 3.53ab 1.40Herbal teas 2.17a 3.71ab 2.00b 2.60 2.58 2.76x
Less healthy quick foodsHamburgers 4.96aabc 3.86abc 4.41bb 4.30ccd 4.63ad 4.22y
Hot dogs 2.83aa 2.76bc 3.56abd 3.00d 3.67ac 2.30w
Potato/corn chips 4.29a 3.76a 4.11b 3.90c 3.13aabc 2.27w
Regular sodas 4.42aab 3.29ac 4.41bcd 3.20bd 3.53ab 2.06w
Canned spaghetti/ravioli 2.00aa 1.43a 1.70 1.35a 1.66 1.00Canned vegetables 3.21a 3.19b 3.85 3.20c 4.34abc 2.18w
Restaurant prepared mealsDinner out 4.17a 4.48ab 4.56bc 3.80bb 3.68aac 2.31w
Take-away Chinese 2.50aabc 2.25ade 1.63df 1.75bg 1.34cefg 8.17z
Take-away pizza 3.75abcd 2.86ae 2.67bf 2.40cg 1.84defg 13.97z
Fast food items 4.00abc 3.19a 3.48a 3.00b 2.95aac 2.12wAlcoholic beveragesBeer 4.46aa 3.71b 3.67ac 4.30b 2.97abbc 2.24w
Light beer 2.75a 2.38 2.41 2.00a 2.37 0.61Imported wine 2.71a 2.62a 2.37b 3.15bc 2.05aac 2.40w
Premium domes tic wine 2.25aa 3.14abc 2.37b 2.80a 2.29c 2.02w
Ordinary domestic wine 2.79aa 3.52ab 3.22 3.80ab 2.82bb 1.46Distilled spirits 2.46a 2.71a 3.59aab 3.00 2.71b 1.46
vp , 0:20, wp , 0:10, xp , 0:05, yp , 0:01, zp , 0:001 for F-test values.Labels: NW Newlywed couples; DM/CC Delayed marriage/true childless couples; TEN Traditional
empty nest; DEN Delayed empty nest; OC Older couples.A prioricomparisons: pairs with same superscript are significantly different at p 0:05 level; Pairs with
same superscript with + (eg, a+) are significantly different at p 0:10 level.
MANOVA Multivariate Tests of Significance (S 4, M 10 1/2, N 49)Test Name Value Approx. F Hypoth. DF Error DF P(F)
Hotellings CC 2.21872 2.10138 104.00 394.00 0.000Wilks CC 0.19837 1.93274 104.00 399.27 0.000
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Yankelovichs (1981) consumption
profile of those pursuing the search for
self-fulfilment. NW couples were the
heaviest users of bottled juice, takeaway
Chinese food and pizza, fast foods,
canned spaghetti, hamburgers, potato/
corn chips, beer and imported wine, but
the lightest users of frozen juice and
distilled spirits. NW couples were also
the lightest users, while OCs were the
heaviest users, of such healthy foods as
unsweetened cereal, fresh fruit, fresh
and frozen vegetables and homemade
soup. In addition, OCs were the
heaviest users of canned vegetables and
hot dogs, but the lightest users of
bottled juice, restaurant foods, potato
corn chips and beer. This pattern reflects
OCs greater preparation of generally
healthy food choices, while avoiding
restaurants, and age/health-related
reduced intake of sugary/fatty foods
and most forms of alcohol.
As shown in Table 2, DM/CC couples
had the highest mean values for second
and third cars, trucks/vans, boats and
motorcycles/ATVs, second TVs and
VCRs, and had higher values for all 19
items (except stereos) than newlyweds.
The F-test values for MANOVAs of
durable goods expenditures were based
on the transformation [p
(x)p(x 1)],as recommended by Kirk (1968) to
reduce the problem of heterogeneity of
variances, where group means are
correlated with standard deviations,
and many individuals have values of
zero. This pattern of contrasts between
Table 2 Dollar values of major durable acquisitions for childless couple categories
Items/Categories NW DM/CC TEN DEN OC Fcc(Cell size/df) (n 24) (n 21) (n 27) (n 20) (n 38) (4,125)
Major durables: homes, cars, and other vehiclesPrimary home 48083abcd 103540ae 106033bf 93568c 79547def 7.67z
Second home 3000ab 8333 16122ac 18800bd 1578cd 2.25w
Primary car 8393 8940 9494a 7512a 8625 0.27Second car 4129aa 5430bc 4199d 2687ab 1940acd 4.10yThird car 135a 1000abc 153b 325d 39cd 3.04x
Truck/van 583a 1080 371b 30ab 507aa 0.42Camper/RV 0abc 1114a 351b 4619 921c 0.92Boat 150ab 4371aac 1136abd 1275b 121bcd 3.38x
Motorcycle/ATV 70a 361a 148 5b 0aab 1.20Home entertainment equipment and furnitureStereo 635abc 529de 393afg 193bdf 247ceg 8.44z
Primary TV set 425 462 472 433 465 0.12Second TV set 234aa 319ab 305ac 210bbc 286b 1.93v
Third TV set 57abc 101d 199aabd 127ab 128bc 2.12w
Pers onal Ccomput er 109aa 273abb 129bc 337acd 72bd 2.73x
Video cassette recorder 348abc 359def 189aad 209beg 105acfg 5.13z
Satellite dish 0 0 37 0 26 0.65Living room furniture 757a 859abc 935aabc 725bb 739cc 2.37w
Dining room furniture 485aabb 730ac 810bcd 649ad 585bcc 2.72x
Master bedroom furniture 583aa 741ab 842abb 736 708b 3.11x
vp , 0:
20, wp , 0:
10, xp , 0:
05, yp , 0:
01, zp , 0:
001 for F-test values.Category Labels: NW Newlywed couples; DM/CC Delayed marriages/true childless couples; TEN
Traditional empty nest; DEN Delayed empty nest; OC Older couples.A prioricomparisons: Pairs with same superscript are significantly different at p 0:05 level;Pairs with the same superscript with + (eg, a+) are significantly different at p 0:10 level.Statistical tests and values of (1 L) for both sets of monetary values are based on the transformation(p
xp(x 1)), to adjust for heterogeneity and skewness with many values of zero present.
Major Durables MANOVA Multivariate Tests (S 4, M 2, N 5712)
Test Name Value Approx. Fcc Hypoth. DF Error DF Pcc
Hotellings 0.73055 2.34386 36.00 462.00 0.000Wilks 0.52158 2.31935 36.00 440.19 0.000
Minor Durables MANOVA Multivariate Tests (S 4, M 2 12, N 57)
Hotellings 1.02379 2.93060 40.00 458.00 0.000Wilks 0.43025 2.75072 40.00 441.71 0.000
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DM/CC and NW couples is consistent
with expectations. NWs had the lowest
mean values for primary homes,
campers/RVs, third TVs and dining
room furniture, while OCs had the
lowest mean values for second homes,
second and third cars, boats,motorcycles/ATVs, personal computers
and VCRs. Although it seems logical to
expect those greater discretionary
durable expenditures among DM/CC
families to carry over to DEN couples,
this is not the case. TEN couples had the
highest mean values for primary homes,
primary cars and for living room,
dining room and bedroom furniture,
whereas DEN couples owned the least
expensive primary cars, stereos, second
TVs and living room furniture, and had
the next to lowest mean values for
second cars. These findings might be
explained by a strong early commitment
to invest in family-specific marital
capital among TEN couples; or may also
reflect a better current financial situation
due to children leaving the nest earlier,
and/or less or no recent investment in
childrens education compared to DEN
couples. It is noted, however, that DEN
couples had the highest mean values for
personal computers, campers/RVs
(followed by DM/CC couples) andsecond homes (followed by TEN
couples). This latter finding is in line
with the general proposition that
nontraditional CCs spend more on
durable goods related to their
individualistic lifestyles and leisure
pursuits and spend less on home
ownership.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Sweeping social and cultural changes
during the past several decades have
resulted in fundamental changes in the
traditional household unit and created
various nontraditional household types.
Since the 1980s, delayed marriage and
childless couple households have
emerged as the fastest growing
nontraditional household type. The
fundamentally new lifestyles associated
with various forms of modernised
childless couple households have
stimulated researchers interest because
their distinctive lifestyles, value and
consumption profiles are not adequately
captured by existing household life
cycle models. Although researchershave developed modernised household
life cycle models that technically
incorporate such households, they do so
by aggregating them with their
traditional counterparts based on
similarity of current household
composition. (An exception was
Murphy and Staples (1979) stipulation
of a middle-aged true childless couple
category.) Those few studies which have
attempted to characterise childless
household consumption patterns have
largely done so by comparing
heterogeneous aggregates of
newlyweds, delayed marriages and
childless couples to full nest couples of
comparable age. Thus, while implicitly
appealing profiles have resulted, no
previous studies have directly
compared traditional newlyweds or
empty nest households with their
nontraditional counterparts who delay
marriage and delay or eschew
childbearing.
The present study developed anoperationally effective method of
classifying nontraditional childless
couple households (delayed marriage
and true childless couples, as well as
delayed empty nest couples) from their
traditional counterparts (newlyweds
and traditional empty nest couples) and
from older couples. The operational
definitions developed separate
newlywed and empty nest households
from delayed marriages and true
childless couples rather than aggregate
them with their more traditional
counterparts as did most previous
studies. Moreover, this study directly
examined differences between
traditional newlyweds and empty nest
couples from modern childless couples
rather than comparing their
heterogeneous aggregates (labelled
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childless couples) to full nest
households. This approach not only
incorporates delayed marriages, true
childless couples and delayed empty
nest households, but classifies them into
reasonably homogeneous separate
categories. The empirical evaluation ofthis classification scheme generated
strong results that are indicative of an
improved treatment of couples without
dependent children, and the resultant
scheme can be readily incorporated into
extant household life cycle models.
From a conceptual point of view, this
childless household classification
approach captures underlying role
theory influences those related not
just to underlying values, but also to sex
role norms, to current household
composition, and also to anticipated
future roles (anticipatory socialisation).
It also indirectly captures the impact of
socio-economic variables such as social
class, occupational and educational
status and discretionary income, which
interact with values as well as work and
time-related stresses to further influence
consumption patterns. The authors
believe these roles interact with values
and norms to drive consumption
behaviour, and that the focus on values
only (as in VALS 2) will fail to uncoverconsumption differences driven by
those interactions.
The results demonstrate that
nontraditional childless couple
households do exhibit significantly
different consumption and attitudinal
patterns from their traditional
counterparts, and that it is
inappropriate to aggregate them with
traditional households of similar
composition and head of household
ages. This finding is important in that it
suggests that extant modernised life
cycle models must be modified to
separate delayed marriages and true
childless couples from newlyweds and
empty nest couples. Another important
outcome of this research is that it is the
first study to provide direct empirical
support that it is appropriate to
aggregate childless remarriages with
their first marriage counterparts as
advocated by Gilly and Enis (1981) and
Hill and Rodgers (1964). This outcome
supports the notion that current
household composition determines
household consumption, rather thanprevious life cycle history. This study
was not designed to investigate the
increasingly complex issue of
developing a typology of remarriages,
however, it is recommended that this
topic be systematically developed and
examined by future research.
The proposed childless couple
classification scheme explains over 80
per cent of the multivariate variance in
food and beverage consumption, and
nearly 85 per cent of that for husbands
and wives attitudes and values. It also
explains nearly 60 per cent of that for
dollar values of major durable
acquisitions, and nearly half that for
value of home entertainment devices
and furniture. It captures unique
attitudinal and consumption differences
between nontraditional and traditional
childless couple households that are
obscured by previous models
aggregation approaches. Couples who
delay marriage and those who delay or
forego having children exhibit moremodern sex role norms and less
traditional religious, sexual and family
values, and report greater time
pressures and work-related stresses
than their traditional counterparts.
These attitudinal and value tendencies
influence household food and beverage
consumption patterns as well as major
durable acquisitions. Such households
evidence more health-conscious food,
beverage and alcoholic consumption
patterns.
Delayed marriages and true childless
couples also tend to evidence different
and greater discretionary dollar
expenditures for selected major durable
assets and home entertainment
equipment and furniture. They reported
the highest average dollar values for
second and third cars, trucks/vans,
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boats and motorcycles/ATVs, VCRs,
second TVs, and had higher values than
newlyweds for primary homes, boats,
campers/RVs, personal computers, and
dining room and bedroom furniture.
Consistent with expectations, delayed
empty nest couples had the highestmean values for personal computers,
campers/RVs and second homes,
findings which are attributable to their
more individualistic values and leisure-
oriented lifestyles than their traditional
counterparts backed by their higher
discretionary income. Contrary to
expectations, other aspects of the
delayed marriage/childless couples
durable acquisitions patterns did not
directly carry over to delayed empty
nest households. Such couples had the
lowest mean values for primary cars,
truck/vans, stereos and living room
furniture. This finding is probably due
to greater and more recent college
expenses preempting household
refurbishing, compared to traditional
empty nest or delayed marriage/
childless couples. It should also be
noted that delayed empty nest couples
in this study were of the pre-baby
boomer generation, and reached age 18
prior to the sweeping cultural value
changes which occurred from the late1960s through the 1970s. The age cohort
of those who grew up during the latter
era and delayed childbearing is only
now beginning to enter the delayed
empty nest stage. This segment, largely
representing affluent dual career
households, when it fully develops, is
likely to evidence stronger attitudinal
and consumption contrasts consistent
with those conceptualised, than those
observed in the present study, and may
show a marked increase in the value of
discretionary durable purchases.
Limitations and future research
implications
While the proposed childless couple
household classification scheme is
theoretically sound and empirically
strong, there are some limitations of this
study. First, the data set is not current
and this limits a clear interpretation of
some of the results and may have led to
weaker and less distinctive attitudinal
and consumption patterns than
expected. A more recent data set in
which delayed empty nest householdsare of the baby boomer generation
would help to clarify some of the issues
and possible interpretations developed
here. A more current data set would
also be likely to yield stronger
attitudinal contrasts of delayed empty
nest and childless couple households to
newlyweds and traditional empty nest
couples than those observed in the
present study. The authors regard their
methodological approach as exploratory
because the data set used to develop
operational definitions of childless
couple categories was also used to
assess the empirical performance of the
resultant classification scheme. The
validity of the proposed classification
and generalisability of major findings
need to be established with larger
samples in future research. The sample
sizes for these comparisons, while
clearly representative of the population,
are small, and led to weaker significance
levels than would be likely to be
observed if a larger sample had beenused. The pattern offindings,
particularly for delayed marriage/
childless couples versus traditional
newlyweds and traditional empty nest
couples, was strong, internally
consistent and consistent with prior
theory. Many of the marginal findings
would have been highly significant if
based on larger samples.
The above limitations should not
diminish the importance of the
theoretical underpinnings and empirical
findings of this study, which the authors
believe make an incremental
contribution to the life cycle literature.
No previous extant studies have
synthesised interdisciplinary theoretical
underpinnings and empirical findings
by developing operational definitions
separating delayed marriage/childless
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couples or delayed empty nest couples
from traditional newlywed or empty
nest couples. This study is the first to
empirically document that traditional
and nontraditional childless couple
households exhibit unique and
distinctive attitudinal and consumptionpatterns, with multi-disciplinary
theoretical underpinnings, and hence
should not be combined.
For future research, the authors
advocate examining usage of particular
food, beverage and restaurant offerings
rather than aggregated expenditures,
and recommend that expenditures for
particular durable goods (eg, major
kitchen appliances, major laundry
appliances, living room furniture, etc)
be examined over at least several years.
Generational changes, age cohort effects
and transitions of childless couples to
subsequent life cycle stages should also
be considered in future research. Post-
baby boomer generation households are
increasingly joining the ranks of
delayed marriage and true childless
couples. The operational definitions and
methodological approach proposed
offers a solid basis for future research in
this area. The authors recommend using
age at birth offirst child, rather than age
at first marriage (or estimates of it forsecond marriages) to separate delayed
and traditional empty nest couples.
They also suggest that applied market
researchers need to determine whether
the full childless couple scheme, or
some reduced form of it, is most
effective for particular consumption
areas. They advise that it be utilised as a
starting point, and that similar
categories be aggregated as needed,
based on empirical a priori comparisons,
to produce an effective classification
scheme suited to the problem at hand.
Managerial implications
Childless married couples are both the
fastest-growing household type, and the
largest category of American families.
Families with no children are projected
to be well over 28 million in 2010,
representing 38.6 per cent of families
and 26.3 per cent of all households
(American Demographics, 1993). This
powerful trend and the upscale socio-
economic profile of nontraditional
childless couples combines to make
them increasingly important marketingtargets. Recent product offerings
suggest that marketers have recognised
evolving opportunities related to
changing attitudes and values and
nontraditional life cycle progressions.
Nontraditional childless couple
households appear to be willing to pay
more for good-tasting, high-quality,
healthy, frozen dinner entrees (Business
Week, 1992). Through the 1990s there
have been a number of market entries
for frozen dinner entrees touting low
calories (eg, Lean Cuisine, Le Menu,
Weight Watchers) or healthy low fat/
cholesterol content combined with high
quality (eg, Healthy Choice, Tysons).
Con-Agras Healthy Choice line seems
to have targeted both spouses among
delayed marriage and childless couples,
and has emphasised evening, late night
and weekend TV advertising, as well as
news and nontraditional womens
magazines.
The line ofspace-saver kitchen
appliances introduced in the 1990s byGE and Black and Decker was custom
designed for the smaller kitchens of
upscale, delayed childbearing, baby-
boomer couples who continued to live
in apartments near the urban areas in
which both pursued careers prior to
having children. Delayed marriage/
childless couples clearly represent a
major market for car, SUV, truck, van,
motorcycle/ATV and boat marketers, as
well as VCRs, personal computers and
dining room and bedroom furniture.
Both they and delayed empty nest
couples represent major markets for
healthy food and beverages as well as
premium imported and domestic wines,
but should not be targeted for junk
foods, sugary beverages or desserts,
high-fat dairy products or high-fat
snack foods. Traditional empty nest
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couples, on the other hand, represent a
major target market for these latter
products, as well as hard spirits, and
probably can be reached effectively
through daytime and prime time
television, as well as traditional
womens magazines.
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