Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate a practical consumer education program for kindergarten children and to investigate whether consumer education affects their consumer knowledge and consumer behavior. The subjects of this study were 32 5-year-old kindergarten children who participated (experimental group) and 25 kindergarten children who did not participate (control group) in the consumer education program. Consumer education was held for 6 hours twice a week during October 8 to 29, 2002. Questionnaire surveys were conducted before and after the education program. Percentiles, frequencies, means, and ANCOVA were utilized for data analysis with SPSS program. The results of this study showed that consumer education had very positive and significant effects on consumer knowledge (p<.01) and consumer behavior (p<.05) among kindergarten children. Furthermore, consumer education for only three weeks had effectively enhanced kindergarten children's ability as consumers. These results imply that consumer education should be served periodically and systematically from an early age. Diverse subjects and teaching methods must be developed and utilized for consumer education of kindergarten children.
