As a special consumer group, college students play an irreplaceable role in current economic life, especially in leading consumption fashion and improving consumption structure.

At the same time, their consumption status and characteristics also reflect the current living conditions and value orientation of college students to some extent. As a member of contemporary college students, as a group of energetic college students who are deeply concerned about China's economic development and China's economy, we completed this survey report through in-depth investigation and data collection in five colleges and universities, trying to interpret the current consumption status and trends of Zhengzhou college students from the perspectives of consumption intention, consumption consciousness and consumption psychology. Maybe our data is not authoritative enough, maybe our analysis is not accurate enough, but we have our own perspective, our own vision and our own methods. It represents our own voice. I hope readers and all those who care about college students' consumption can grasp the current consumption trend of college students and interpret the new concept of college students' consumption through this survey report. The reason for this survey is mainly based on the following two purposes: First, through the investigation of the current consumption situation of college students in Zhengzhou, I hope to find out the consumption composition, consumption differences and main factors affecting their consumption composition of college students in Zhengzhou at the beginning of 2 1 century. Secondly, through the sampling survey of Zhengzhou universities, we can interpret the consumption concept, consumption consciousness and consumption psychology of Chinese college students.

Two. Basic information:

The survey object is generally defined as all full-time readers and junior college students in Zhengzhou universities. In order to better segment the target audience, the interviewees are divided into art students, graduates, other forms of school students and junior college students. Graduate students and adult students are not included in this survey because of their relatively small number and representativeness.

Table 2- 1

As can be seen from the table 1— 1, this survey mainly involves five schools and seven campuses in Zhengzhou, and also takes into account the concentrated areas of several universities in Zhengzhou. In addition, a total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed in this survey, of which 765 were valid, and the effective recovery rate was 76.5%. The questionnaire was distributed from March 3 to October 22, 2003/KLOC-0, with a total of 65,438 copies. Among the valid questionnaires, undergraduates are 5 1 1 and junior college students are 254. Universities dominated by undergraduates are the main body of this survey. Among them, there are 49 boys1and 274 girls, and the male-female ratio is about 1 1:7. This is closely related to the fact that most of the above institutions are science and engineering colleges. The questionnaire design and data processing of this survey mainly adopt independent sample T test, correlation analysis, regression analysis, variance analysis and cluster analysis. The main analysis software is SPSS 1 1.0.

Table 2-2

It can be seen from table 1-2 that among the valid questionnaires collected in this survey, there are 88 art students and 104 graduates. Special students (art) and graduates are also groups that cannot be ignored in college students' consumption. In addition, in the statistics, we found that at present, the proportion of college students in Zhengzhou is relatively large, about 66.3%, and there are relatively few students from towns and cities, which are 23.4% and 10.3% respectively, which is basically consistent with the enrollment ratio of Henan Province (mainly for Henan Province).

Third, analysis:

At present, the consumption composition of Zhengzhou college students is mainly divided into four aspects: basic living expenses (food, clothing, housing and transportation), study expenses (tuition, books and miscellaneous expenses, research expenses, computers, etc. ), leisure and entertainment expenses (leisure, fitness, travel, entertainment, etc. ) and interpersonal expenses (human feelings and love). For the total living expenses they can get each month (excluding their extra-curricular income), 40.0% of the students are concentrated between 350-500 and 500-650 yuan, which is about 2 1.3%, the high-consumption group (above 800 yuan) is 10.2%, and the low-consumption group (below 200 yuan) is 9. To some extent, this shows that the current social distribution tends to be polarized, which is basically consistent with their overall evaluation of Zhengzhou's consumption level (see Table 3- 1). In addition, compared with the national survey of college students' consumption in China Youth Research Center in 20001year (3.87% in 300 yuan, 44.4 1% in 300-500 yuan and 65,438+09.33% in 500-700 yuan), the consumption level of college students in Zhengzhou was equivalent to 200654 at the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003.

Table 3- 1

2. Consumer spending

Food expenditure

Clothing expenditure 35.5%4 1%

Leisure expenditure

Learning-related expenditure

Other expenditure 4.3% 6.1%13.1%

Figure 3- 1

As can be seen from the above figure, at present, the consumption content of Zhengzhou college students mainly focuses on food expenditure and clothing expenditure, of which food expenditure accounts for 4 1.0% and clothing expenditure accounts for 13. 1%. Leisure and entertainment accounted for 6. 1%, and all aspects related to learning accounted for 4.3%. Combined with previous surveys, we can see that: on the one hand, the proportion of college students' consumption to meet basic survival needs has decreased, while the proportion of consumption to improve their studies has increased, and the consumption to meet spiritual and cultural needs has begun to rise. On the other hand, college students pay more and more attention to healthy consumption, and the expenditure on physical exercise and health care is rising. Healthy consumption and spiritual and cultural consumption are gradually becoming the main consumption contents, while traditional material consumption (food, clothing, housing and transportation) or survival consumption is also developing in a more nutritious and tasteful direction.

For many college students, eating has gone beyond the scope of filling their stomachs. Although food expenditure is still one of the main expenses of college students, about 47.7% of the respondents' food expenditure accounts for about 40% of the total living expenditure. About 24. 1% of the respondents' food expenditure accounts for about 50% of the total living expenditure. On the other hand, the cost of college students eating out is increasing day by day. McDonald's, KFC and some expensive specialty snacks have become the places frequented by college students, especially campus couples.

The data shows that 47.3% of the respondents spend an average of 50- 100 yuan on clothes every month, that is to say, nearly 50% of the respondents spend nearly 1000 yuan on clothes every year, which is second only to food expenditure, especially for graduates facing job hunting. Their clothing expenditure is much higher than that of other college students. The above data show that as college students and adults who are about to enter the society, they pay more attention to their external image. In this respect, the consumption level of girls is higher than that of boys. Among the girls surveyed, nearly 30% own brand clothes with prices above 300 yuan.

Apart from the consumption of food, clothing, housing and transportation, the current consumption of college students is mainly concentrated in the following aspects.

(a) leisure and study consumption table 3-2 (%)

The survey shows that college students' demand for leisure and entertainment consumption is stronger than that of other age groups, and this demand began to appear in the 1990s. In the new century, the demand of college students is getting stronger and stronger. Traveling abroad only became popular among Chinese college students in the 1990s, but it has a strong development momentum, and college students have become the main body of young tourists. In terms of tourism content, college students pay more attention to natural scenery and cultural taste. At present, the tourism expenditure of college students in Zhengzhou accounts for about 40% of the total leisure and entertainment expenditure, and the annual tourism expenditure below 200 yuan accounts for 29. 1%, which is equivalent to the proportion that 26.9% people never travel. However, the proportion of freshmen who never travel is mainly concentrated, which has a lot to do with their late entry into the university. In the tourism expenditure, 25.9% people spend between 200-2000-2000 in 600 yuan. In addition, nearly 10% of college students spend more than 1000 yuan on tourism every year, which largely shows that the material life of our people is more affluent at present. In addition, at present, other forms of entertainment for college students in Zhengzhou mainly focus on surfing the Internet, playing computer games, watching movies, dancing and fitness, and the corresponding entertainment expenditure is also concentrated here, as shown in Table 3-2. However, new forms of entertainment such as discos, teahouses and karaoke rooms are increasingly favored by college students. In addition, girls' expenditure in this area is slightly lower than that of boys, which is closely related to the fact that girls' leisure time is mainly used for shopping. The cost of clubbing for boys is much higher than that for girls, which also shows that the spiritual and cultural life of college students is relatively monotonous to some extent.

It is also worth noting that more and more college students want to have their own private space and do things they are interested in without interference from outsiders. To this end, some of them do not hesitate to rent a house outside, which makes their already insufficient living expenses even more stretched.

In addition, although the proportion of college students' spending on learning has increased, their spending on learning (except buying computers) is still lower than that on entertainment. At the same time, the survey of college students' existing durable consumer goods in Zhengzhou can also explain the above viewpoint well (see the column of "consumption of durable consumer goods"). In recent years, due to the upsurge of "Postgraduate Entrance Examination" in university campuses, college students have generously contributed to various exams that are helpful for job hunting and employment, mainly in senior students, especially those who are about to graduate. This will be reflected in the column of graduate student consumption, so I won't go into details here.

(2) Consumption of durable consumer goods (value above 200 yuan)

According to the survey data, Wenquxing, electronic dictionary and walkman account for a high proportion of current college students. In the in-depth interview, it was found that there are many students who own several thousand yuan ultra-thin walkman, CD player and MP3 player. In addition, mobile phones of around 1,000 yuan are more popular and common on university campuses. Senior students, especially graduates, have a higher proportion of mobile phones for the convenience of internship and job hunting. According to the survey data, college students are a group with great potential in computer consumption, and the ownership of 12. 1% is not a very high proportion. However, after in-depth research, it is found that most of the students who own personal computers are students studying computer and related majors, and many students buy computers in dormitories in the form of collective ownership and cost sharing. At the same time, with the transformation of computers from business consumption to life consumption, the opening of campus network and the downward adjustment of personal computer prices, the consumption psychology of college students has gradually changed from practicality to feeling. Of course, at present, most of the computers used by college students in Zhengzhou are assembly machines with a price of 3,000-4,500 yuan, and there are few brand-name machines and notebook computers. In the above survey of durable consumer goods, there is a big difference between boys and girls. Although the number of mobile phones owned by girls is the same as that of boys, which are 32.7% and 28.8% respectively, the number of computers, walkman and MP3 players is far lower than that of boys.

(3) the consumption of love and friendship

Love and friendship are stories that have to be told on campus. Love is sacred, but it is also built on a strong economic foundation. Every student in the university campus is more or less eager for love. Some people even say that college life without love is incomplete, but the huge investment in love will still discourage many students from relatively difficult families. Of course, this can't be an obstacle for those persistent pursuers of campus love. "Shantou is a pickle, saving money and falling in love." Become the faithful creed of many campus love heroes. According to the survey, less than 20% (19.0%) of the students admit that they have a boyfriend/girlfriend (which is quite different from our private statistics). Less than 20% of the questionnaires show that after having a boyfriend/girlfriend, food expenditure and clothing expenditure are relatively reduced, while other material and spiritual expenditures are relatively increased, especially for boys. 30.0% of the "leading men" spend about 100 yuan on their girlfriends every month. For students who have friends of the opposite sex but have different schools, a considerable part of their monthly living expenses is "contributed" to the telecommunications industry. As for the source of love expenses, through in-depth interviews, we found that some of them are provided by families, some are work-study programs, and more are paid from living expenses. This is related to the social role of college students, and also to the attitude of families towards college students' love.

The survey figures show that the complicated social communication among classmates, teachers and students, fellow villagers, roommates, individuals, classes, societies and schools not only occupies a large part of the current college students' time, but also occupies a decisive position in their consumption. However, people's consumption, because of its various forms and uncertainty, is relatively difficult to count. Friends and classmates will inevitably come and go, and you will inevitably be invited to eat and drink; Birthday parties and other forms of celebration dinners are indispensable; Emotional contact with relatives and friends who are not together is also absolutely important. Students get high marks in birthday exams, become student cadres, join the party, get scholarships, win prizes in competitions, etc. Otherwise, it will be regarded as a lack of friendship and not going on the road. According to statistics, nearly 60% of college students spend all kinds of parties and dinners in 500 yuan every year, and nearly 30% of college students spend this kind of money in 800 yuan every year. Very few students spend thousands or even thousands of dollars every year. In addition, for those students who don't have friends of the opposite sex but have mobile phones, most of the monthly mobile phone fees are also used for this. According to statistics, 59. 1% of mobile phone families spend between 50- 100 yuan a month.

For students who don't have mobile phones, calling cards are essential. The opening of 20 1 program-controlled telephone on campus provides convenience for us to make calls. At the same time, the telephone bill has also gone up. 67. 1% of college students spend about 10-40 per month on telephone, and nearly 20% (19.5438+0%) spend 40-40 on telephone cards. Although modern telecommunications is very developed, there are still a large number of college students (77.0%) who keep in touch with their distant relatives and friends through letters. Of course, the consumption of letters is negligible compared with other means of communication.

(D) Consumption of graduates

The survey figures show that the consumption of graduates mainly focuses on the external tree image and the internal plastic quality. Almost all graduates think that a decent coat, a mobile phone and a beautiful resume are essential things in the job search process. In order to increase the chips of workplace competition, many students are willing to invest huge sums of money in research. In-depth interviews show that research fees have become the main investment of senior college students. According to some students, some exams cost thousands or even thousands of dollars at a time. In addition, attending various job fairs is not a low cost, especially for those students who are employed across provinces. For students who are interested in taking the postgraduate entrance examination, it is essential to buy various counseling books and participate in various levels of training. Preparing for and taking various exams, such as the national civil service exam, as one of the important ways of employment, costs a lot. Although it is difficult to calculate the cost of students preparing to go abroad, the amount can be imagined.

(5) Consumption of special students

The special students here mainly refer to art students. Compared with general enrollment, their expenses are mainly concentrated on buying books, learning professional-related tools, going out to sketch and visiting. 80% art students spend about 500- 1000 yuan on school supplies related to their majors every year. According to the distance, the consumption level in the region and the length of time, they spend about 1000 yuan each time they go out to sketch, which is the main reason why students with special skills spend more than other students.

(vi) Other consumption

For boys who have a hobby of smoking, their "cigarette fee" is also a modest expense. The data obtained through questionnaires and in-depth interviews show that about 30% of boys have the habit of smoking for a long time. According to the degree of "smoking addiction", the cost is different. Most "smokers" taste in the middle and low grades, so they spend about 40-80 yuan per month. In addition, 6. 1% boys have the habit of buying lottery tickets, and the spending is mainly concentrated around 10 yuan every month.

For 60.2% girls, snacks are essential, and their monthly expenses are around 50 yuan. In addition, the consumption of cosmetics is also indispensable for girls. 72.3% of girls spend about 30-50% of their monthly expenses on washing and cosmetics in 30 yuan, while a few (7.3%) spend about 30-50% on washing and cosmetics. Few girls spend more than 100 yuan on this, including going to beauty salons for professional care regularly.

Four. Countermeasures and analysis

According to the survey data, 35.2% of the students have cost overruns, and even one semester's living expenses are spent in two or three months.

To some extent, this shows that college students are impulsive and blind in personal finance. When the living expenses are overdrawn, only less than 10% (8. 1%) students are willing to ask their parents for it. 20.9% students are willing to borrow from classmates or friends. Most students (6 1.0%) prefer to save their own money and work to earn money. In the treatment of their own income, due to different starting points, there are also great differences in use. Among the students who have to earn extra money due to family economic reasons, nearly 90% of the respondents choose to save their money for other purposes. For those students who are trained purely to improve their professional knowledge and practical level, this part of their income is mainly used for entertainment, shopping, eating and subsidizing overdraft living expenses.

In the purchase choice of personal consumer goods: 67. 1% students pay more attention to cost performance. This kind of college students don't care much about shopping places, but also like to go to flea markets or roadside stalls for gold. The main consideration is whether you like it or not, accounting for 18.0%, and 9.0% of the students do not buy it because it is not a famous brand. In the minds of the above two types of students, the role of advertising is extraordinary. They pursue grades, advocate famous brands and show their individuality. Specialty stores and supermarkets are usually the first choice for these students to shop. The above differences are closely related to their family economic background and consumer psychology.

Through the analysis, it is found that there is a huge gap and difference between the economic consumption level and consumption composition of college students, in which the highest annual consumption reaches 1.35 million yuan, while the lowest annual consumption is only 1.88 million yuan, which is not much different from the national average, but slightly lower than the consumption level of college students in Wuhan in 2006 (the highest is 1.85). The higher the family income, the more economic supply for children, which constitutes a special consumption pattern of college students.

It can also be seen from the data that 63.0% of college students tend to spend impulsively, and the proportion of girls in this respect is much higher than the average level. In addition,13 students are willing to borrow money to buy things they like very much, while nearly14 students have or often regret that what they bought is not used or rarely used. In the column of self-rated consumption types, it shows that only a little more than 1/3 college students think they are cautious consumers, 9.9% people think they belong to the crowd of eating, drinking and having fun today, and most people (55.0%) can't tell what kind of consumers they belong to. Therefore, we can think that at present, college students are impulsive and blind in personal consumption, which is largely related to. Nevertheless, the current college students' general consumption concept is moving towards the direction of paying equal attention to individuals and society on the premise of pursuing reality, realizing themselves and showing themselves, and presents the following characteristics:

1. Personality and imitation coexist:

Diversified development stems from the manifestation of individuality. Individualized consumption of college students is a remarkable feature of the new youth cultural movement. This personalization can also be understood as fashion and stylization, not just the deliberate pursuit and expression of individuality and self by traditional youth. The explosive growth of new knowledge, the rapid popularization and application of new technologies and the profound influence of new information media on daily life have made the formation and popularity of fashion faster, and at the same time, it has a more distinctive theme and a more humanized expression, thus becoming a symbolic and popular color and tone in college students' daily life and social activities, that is, becoming a stylized thing. The development of commodity economy has greatly enriched the consumer market. College students are at the age of pursuing personality development, enhancing self-awareness and being willing to accept new things. Facing the colorful consumer market, college students' consumption psychology tends to be rational, and they begin to show more mature value orientation in their consumption behavior. When college students buy expensive goods like computers, they tend to be calm before buying them. Most college students will consult relevant information, such as price, performance and brand, before deciding whether to buy. Many will consult classmates or related personnel, and some college students will discuss with their families before buying.

Nowadays, college students' consumption has strong imitative characteristics and deep "white-collar complex": wearing brand-name clothes is inseparable from laptops, and information is in hand to create future life. This has become a social image that many college students envy and imitate. Nowadays, developed and fast consumer information and increasing consumer demand enable college students to appreciate and grasp fashion more timely and accurately. Although they may not have them, they can learn a lot about fashion brands. At the same time, I have my own understanding of life and my own choice of consumption. They pay attention to the taste and quality of life, and Que Ning is not excessive, preferring high to low. What they pursue is a modern lifestyle that pays equal attention to material enjoyment and spiritual life.

2. Diversity and practicality coexist:

Mass cultural consumption market is an important factor affecting the diversity of college students' consumption culture. Popular culture is inseparable from the participation, contrast and noise of young college students. Young people always lead the latest trends in the consumer market. Judging from the development of China in the past 20 years, young people first entered the consumer goods market, not the talent or labor market. First of all, the change of youth's consumption concept and consumption mode has promoted the change of youth's lifestyle, and then other aspects of youth have also changed. The characteristics of diversified consumption of college students are rooted in the existence of diversified value goals of college students. This diversified value goal, on the one hand, makes college students' thoughts active, which is conducive to exerting their intelligence and creativity, multiple comparisons and rational consumption. On the other hand, it may also lead to some negative consumption types of college students being influenced by bad tendencies.

In the analysis of consumption, whether it is the cost of food and clothing in the basic living consumption of college students, or tuition, books and miscellaneous expenses, computers and so on. In their study consumption; Both college students' leisure and entertainment consumption and college students' interpersonal communication consumption tend to have a strong practical color. This can be clearly seen from the investigation and statistics of leisure and entertainment methods and expenses.

3. The consumption difference is more and more obvious:

First, the consumption composition of students from rural areas is relatively simple, and the overall consumption level is also low. Second, the overall consumption level of students in eastern coastal provinces and cities is relatively higher than that of students in Henan Province, and the consumption composition is also relatively diversified. To a great extent, this shows that whether the city is open or not and whether the economy is developed or not not not not only affects the current consumption level of college students, but also affects their consumption composition and consumption concept.

Finally, in view of the unhealthy phenomena of blind consumption, comparison consumption, fashion consumption, kitsch consumption and "face" consumption, which are common in colleges and universities, we call on college students all over the country to strengthen their moral cultivation, actively change their outlook on life and values, and improve their personality. Emphasize "reasonable and moderate" consumption, oppose excessive consumption, high consumption and advanced consumption, and advocate planned consumption of "living within our means"; Emphasize frugality, thrift, thrift and other frugal consumption concepts; Emphasize rational consumption and rational behavior, and oppose irrational blind consumption, including blind comparison and pathological consumption. At the same time, make full use of campus mass media tools to guide the public opinion of consumption in colleges and universities, cultivate reasonable consumption habits, consumption concepts and scientific consumption concepts, promote reasonable and moderate consumption of college students, and improve their consumption ability and level. Form a good consumption concept on campus and guide college students' consumption behavior to develop in the right direction.

Attachment: Due to technical reasons, the tables and charts in this article cannot be attached.