Consumption socialization and the formation of materialism among
Keywords:
Socialization, Adolescents, Materialism, Socio-familiar structure, BehaviorAbstract
Experiences in adolescence are of major importance in building patterns of behavior, including in the adult phase. Drawing from socialization theory and studies on materialism, this study aims to investigate the formation of materialistic behavior among adolescents, researching the antecedent variables of this behavior. In order to do that, a theoretical framework, based on two important research streams – socialization theory and socio-familiar structure –, was developed and tested through two surveys, the first one with 460 adolescents and the second with 190 just-adults. The model was tested by the statistical technique of Confirmatory Factorial Analysis with structural equations. The findings of the first study bring a significant impact of the following variables in the materialistic behavior among adolescents: 1. level of interaction with their parents; 2. level of contact with their peers; 3. level of contact with television; 4. gender; 5. family income; and 6. situation of their parents. Female teenagers, with divorced parents, high family income, higher contact with their peers and with television indicated higher degree of materialism; while those adolescents with higher interaction with their parents presented lower degree of materialism. Comparing these findings with those from the second study – composed by just-adults –, we observe that the influence of gender, income and, mainly, television on the materialistic behavior has decreased significantly. On the other hand, the impact of the situation of the parents in the adolescence is still high and the influence of the level of interaction with their friends during teenager years increased. Overall, the results support the impact of socialization during adolescence in the formation of materialism and the influence of the interaction with peers on the sample composed by adolescents as well as by individuals in the beginning of their adult phase. Regarding television, the impact is more immediate, being restricted to materialistic behaviors during adolescence. The separation of parents, gender, and familiar income also exert relevant influence. There was no difference in levels of materialism between the two samples. A qualitative study with 11 adolescents was carried out to sediment findings, in which the group influence was salient.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Once the papers have been approved, the authors will assign their copyrights to this Journal. The Copyright Assignment Conditions include:
1. The Mackenzie Administration Journal holds the rights to all the papers published therein through assignment of copyright.
2. The author retains moral rights to the paper, including the right to identify the author whenever the article is published.
3. As of July 1, 2015 RAM adopted the CC-BY license standard (Creative Commons– BY). Authors are allowed to copy, distribute, display, transmit and adapt articles. Authors must attribute to RAM explicitly and clearly an article’s original publication (with reference to the journal’s name, edition, year and pages in which the article was originally published), yet without suggesting that RAM endorses the author or its use of the article. Contents are released by means of the CC-BY license to fully inter-operate with a variety of different systems and services, including for commercial purposes. In case of an article’s reuse or distribution, authors must make the article’s licensing terms clear to third parties. CC-BY criteria follow open access policies by major OA (Open Access) publishers and journals, such as PLoS, eLife, Biomed Central and Hindawi, among others.
4. When formally requested by the author, this Journal may allow the paper to be published as a chapter or part of a book. The only requirement is that prior publication in this Journal (Journal name, issue, year and pages) must be clearly and explicitly shown as a reference.
