Ethnocentric food consumption behavior of families: An intergenerational study | Ailelerin etnosentrik gıda ürünleri tüketim davranışları: Kuşaklararası bir inceleme

This study was planned and conducted to examine the ethnocentric food consumption behavior of families in terms of generation, gender and income group.The sample of the study consists of 500 married women and men as representative of family who are between 18–71 years old, living in the districts of Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Keçiören, Mamak, Sincan and Yenimahalle in Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and shopping in the hypermarkets or supermarkets in these districts.The survey form is prepared for collecting data. The survey form established as; general information about families in the first part, general information about families' food consumption in the second part and 17-item 5-point Likert CETSCALE (Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendencies Scale) in the third part. Since the obtained data were not provided with parametric test assumptions, comparisons between binary groups were analyzed by Mann Whitney-U (MW U) and multiple group comparisons by Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test.Looking at the families who participated in the survey, it is seen that the women, the ones who are in the Generation X, the bachelor's graduates, the ones who earn between 2801-4300 TL and the ones who have got 2 children are in the first place in the study. Among the families who express consuming imported food products in their homes, "buying imported food products on occasion" is in the first place. Families who have never bought imported food products in their home stated why they don't prefer imported food product as "I'm Turkish and I prefer my own country's food products."As a result of the research it was understood that families have medium-level ethnocentric behavior in their food consumption. No statistically significant differences are found between Baby Boomer, X and Y Generations and ethnocentric food products consumption behavior of the families. It is looked from the viewpoint of gender, it is found that ethnocentric food consumption behavior has a significant relationship with gender and women have more ethnocentric behavior in consumption of food products than men (p<0,05). No statistically significant relationship is found between the income groups and the ethnocentric food products consumption behavior of the families.The relationship between the ethnocentric food products consumption behavior of the families and the level of education and the frequency of imported product consumption of them are also analyzed in this study. The results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between education level and ethnocentric food products consumption behavior of the families (p<0,05). According to the paired comparisons, the ethnocentric behavior of food product consumption of the families decreases as the education level of them increases. Statistically significant differences are also found between the frequency of imported food products consumption and ethnocentric consumption of food products in families (p<0,05). Paired comparisons show that while the frequency of imported food products consumption increases ethnocentric food products consumption behavior decreases.