The children's apparel industry is a fast-growing industry in the United States. It is important to determine what factors are considered as the most important when parents purchase their pre-school children's clothing. To gain a better understanding of parent-consumers' purchasing behavior of pre-school children's apparel, this study focused on parent-consumers' evaluative criteria used in purchasing pre-school children's apparel both in Taiwan and in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to compare the evaluative criteria used by Taiwan and U.S. parent-consumers in their decisions to purchase children's apparel. The importance of intrinsic criteria directly related to the product itself and some selected extrinsic criteria were examined. The theoretical framework used for the present study was the EKB consumer behavior model; with focus on the alternative evaluation stage of the consumer decision making process. Previous research has examined evaluative criteria used in purchasing women's and men's apparel, but only limited research has investigated evaluative criteria used in purchasing children's apparel. Survey methodology was used to collect data. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to two non-probability, purposive samples to collect quantitative data. Data were collected through two selected pre-schools at Oregon State University in the U.S. and at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. The samples consisted of 200 parent-consumers with a child or children, ages 3 to 6. Subjects were given questionnaires through teachers or researcher, resulting in a 84.1% response rate. Collected data were analyzed using two sample t-tests. Significant differences were found between the two groups in the importance of aesthetic and extrinsic criteria but not in the importance of usefulness and performance criteria. Among all 22 criteria, significant differences were found between Taiwan and U.S. respondents in the importance of: fiber content, type of fabric, fabric print, having character/logo, color fastness, price, on sale, brand name, and country of origin. The most important criteria for both groups were comfort and size/fit. By identifying the evaluative criteria used by parent-consumers of pre-school children's apparel in two countries, the results partially supported the EKB consumer behavior model. In addition, the findings about the importance of purchase criteria used by parent-consumers may also benefit children's apparel manufacturers and retailers in revising or improving their competitive ability in global marketing. / Graduation date: 1995

Access to abstract restricted until 12/14/2014 / Access to thesis restricted until 12/14/2014 / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences