Children`s Self- Concept Typology and its Effect on Internet Item Purchase Behavior and Self-Evaluation

The purpose of the study was to examine the internet purchase behavior of items and self-assessment according to self-concept of elementary school students. The data were collected from 716 elementary school students by a self-administered questionnaire. Frequencies and means, Cronbach's Alpha, factor analysis, t-test, Pearson's correlation analysis, cross-tabulation analysis, cluster Analysis were conducted by SPSSWIN 12.0. The results from this study were as follows; First, from self-concept measurements, 4 factors(affective, social, schooling, Family self-concept) were extracted through factor analysis. Second, the subjects were classified into 3 clusters as self-concept types(high self-concept, middle self-concept, low self-concept) through cluster analysis. Third, the significant variables affecting internet purchase behaviors of items included grade, allowance, rank in class, the number of hours on the internet. As the self-concept gets higher, the frequence of the impulsive purchase and imitation purchases gets lower. In the contrary, as the self-concept gets higher, the self-assessment on the impulse purchases and imitation purchases also gets higher. In combination, these results suggest that irrational purchase behaviors were protected by positive self-concept, therefore it is important that children have positive a self-concept.