Abstract
The purpose of this study is to reveal the nature of the consumer problems experienced by women's university students and to analyze how these problems, the behaviors of the consumers, and the consumers' personality traits are interrelated. This study also examines the effectiveness of the consumer education at university level, and suggests ways to improve the consumer education so as to raise students' awareness and produce consumers capable of making appropriate decisions based on their own value systems. The results are as follows : 1. Ten percent of all students surveyed experienced some sort of serious consumer problem. Cosmetic purchases and aesthetic services accounted for the largest share where dishonest business practices were involved. 2. Students' unrealistic attitudes toward purchases on credit contributed to impulse purchases. 3. Students who are not independent or reluctant to decline an offer tended to be drawn into a problematic situation at the time of signing a contract. 4. Ninety percent of respondents have been given consumer education, and of those, seventy percent stated that they were given consumer education at their high school home economic class. 5. Many of those who were given consumer education in university demonstrated greater understanding of what could lead to serious consumer problems.
