An Exploratory Study on Diffusion of Fashion with Mothers and Teen-Age Daughters

The purpose of this problem was to investigate how a fashion is introduced into a certain social system and the processes it goes through before the final adoption. This study was undertaken to identify how the fashion item, textured hosiery, diffused into the school community of Whittier Junior High in Lincoln, Nebraska. A review of the diffusion process and a review of the factors influencing fashion changes directed the investigation. The following hypotheses were formulated to guide this investigation and they were justified or disproved: Teen-age girls accept fashion change more readily than their mothers. The adopters of the selected fashion item are greater in number than the rejectors of that item. The influence of fashion leaders is greater in promoting a new innovation than the influence of commercial advertising. A sampling of two hundred persons was used for this study. One hundred respondents were ninth grade girls and one hundred were their mothers. The teen-age girls were between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Their mothers ranged between the ages of thirty to over fifty. A questionnaire survey was developed with closed form questions. The questions were used to determine the various stages of the adoption process as the textured hosiery was introduced and rejected or accepted by the respondents. Advisor: Audrey Newto