Materialism in Children and Adolescents: the Role of the Developing Self-Concept

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - Materialism among today’s youth is a topic of increasing interest among educators, parents, consumer activists, and government regulators. The topic of materialism has garnered interest for several reasons. First, longitudinal studies of materialism among college and high school students show dramatic increases in materialistic values (Korten 1999). Second, the popular press has characterized our children and adolescents as Ahyper-consumers,@ spending approximately $23.4 billion and influencing an additional $485 billion of household purchases each year (McNeal 1999). Third, the astounding increase in marketing aimed at children has prompted parental concern about materialism, with 87% of parents of children aged 2-17 feeling that marketing aimed at children makes them too materialistic (www.newdream.org, 2002).

Citation:

Lan Nguyen Chaplin and Deborah Roedder John (2005) ,"Materialism in Children and Adolescents: the Role of the Developing Self-Concept", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32, eds. Geeta Menon and Akshay R. Rao, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 219-220.