Growing up in a material world: An investigation of the development of materialism in children and adolescents

Materialism among today's youth is a topic of increasing interest among educators, parents, and consumer activists. Despite the interest in understanding more about materialism, a significant gap in research remains that would be useful in understanding the relationship between children's social-cognitive development and consumption values such as materialism (John 1999). Researchers have not yet addressed the question of how materialism develops in children and adolescents. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore this question. We rely on the child development literature to build a conceptual model explaining how a child's developing self-concept is related to the development of materialistic orientations.; We present our findings in three essays. In Essay #1, “The Emergence of Self-Brand Connections in Children and Adolescents,” we examine the changes in self-concepts from childhood through adolescence, focusing on the emergence of connections between branded possessions and self-concepts (self-brand connections). In Essay #2, “Materialism in Children and Adolescents: The Role of the Developing Self-Concept,” we examine the role of various aspects of the self (e.g., self-esteem, self-construal and self-monitoring) in mediating the relationship between age and materialism. In Essay #3, “Materialism in Children and Adolescents: The Role of Parental Influence,” we examine how family factors influence the development of materialism in children and adolescents by influencing their self-esteem. We also examine how parents' materialism directly influences children's materialism.; The view emerging from these data is that children and adolescents develop materialistic values as a result of their changing self-concepts. The development of self-concepts and materialism entail a common degree of social-cognitive oneself, about others, and about how possessions can be used in self-definition. With increasing age, children shift from using concrete terms to conceptualize children shift from recognizing material possessions based on concrete perceptual features to appreciating these things based on their symbolic meanings. These social-cognitive developments lay the foundation for the emergence of materialistic values in children and adolescents.