Anticipatory consumer socialization is the learning of consumer roles and perceptions, which will be assumed at a later time, such as those that children acquire before they become adult consumers. A survey of 784 adolescents was conducted in a southern state to examine the anticipatory consumer socialization effects of such factors as the mass media, school, family, race, and social class on perceptions such as consumer role, occupational aspirations, deferment of consumption gratification, and sex roles. The results suggested that television contributed to the adolescent's development of traditional sex role perceptions regarding household decision making. The data suggested that social class affects youth's occupational aspirations, indicating that upper social class adolescents have higher aspirations than lower class adolescents. Race was a rather weak predictor of anticipatory consumer socialization, although black adolescents appeared to be less likely to defer consumption gratification that did their white counterparts. The relationship between communication with family about consumption matters and the adolescent's career decision was significant, suggesting that intra-family interactions may provide opportunities for occupational socialization, and lead to the development of expectations regarding the purchase of consumer products. (HTH)