How to avoid raising a materialistic child

Authored by today.uic.edu and submitted by mvea

If you’re a parent, you may be concerned that materialism among children has been on the rise. According to research, materialism has been linked to a variety of mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, as well as selfish attitudes and behaviors.

But there’s some good news. A new study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology suggests that some parenting tactics can curb kids’ materialistic tendencies.

“Our findings show that it is possible to reduce materialism among young consumers, as well as one of its most common negative consequences (nongenerosity) using a simple strategy — fostering gratitude for the things and people in their lives,” writes researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin, associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago and coauthor of the study.

After studying a nationwide sample of more than 900 adolescents ages 11 to 17, Chaplin’s team found a link between fostering gratitude and its effects on materialism, suggesting that having and expressing gratitude may possibly decrease materialism and increase generosity among adolescents.

The team surveyed 870 adolescents and asked them to complete an online eight-item measure of materialism assessing the value placed on money and material goods, and a four-item measure of gratitude assessing how thankful they are for people and possessions in their lives.

The researchers then conducted an experiment among 61 adolescents and asked them to complete the same four-item gratitude measure from the first study and an eight-item materialism measure. The adolescents were randomly assigned to keep a daily journal for two weeks. One group was asked to record who and what they were thankful for each day by keeping a gratitude journal, and the control group was asked to record their daily activities.

After two weeks, the journals were collected and the participants completed the same gratitude and materialism measures as before. The kids were then given 10 $1 bills for participating and told they could keep all the money or donate some or all of it to charity.

Results showed that participants who were encouraged to keep a gratitude journal showed a significant decrease in materialism and increase in gratitude. The control group, which kept the daily activity journal, retained their pre-journal levels of gratitude and materialism.

In addition, the group that kept a gratitude journal was more generous than the control group. Adolescents, who were in the experimental group, wrote about who and what they were thankful for and donated more than two-thirds of their earnings. Those who were in the control group and simply wrote about their daily activities donated less than half of their earnings.

“The results of this survey study indicate that higher levels of gratitude are associated with lower levels of materialism in adolescents across a wide range of demographic groups,” Chaplin noted.

The authors also suggest that materialism can be curbed and feelings of gratitude can be enhanced by a daily gratitude reflection around the dinner table, having children and adolescents make posters of what they are grateful for, or keeping a “gratitude jar” where children and teens write down something they are grateful for each week, while countering materialism.

Coauthors of the study include Deborah Roedder John, University of Minnesota; Aric Rindfleisch, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Jeffrey Froh, Hofstra University.

The research was conducted at Villanova University. Lan Nguyen Chaplin is now at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

powderizedbookworm on October 19th, 2018 at 12:47 UTC »

This formal finding seems to dovetail with something I’ve been learning over the years, that the counterintuitive cure for materialism is to have more love for one’s material things.

For instance, I have a small set of kitchen knives that I have spent a large amount of money on. When I walk by, I sometimes just pick one up because I like the way they feel in my hand. I am also done buying those knives for good (might still pick up a filet knife or something, but I wouldn’t consider another chef’s knife). I’m about 30, and I have many friends who’ve gone from the $100 knife block they they don’t like to a $200 knife block set they still don’t like, and still spend energy worrying about their knives.

But a few years ago, I had a $10 victorinox paring knife (rather than the $100 locally made one I use now) and I loved that one for its simplicity. I still do, actually, it goes on picnics with me. When it was time to upgrade it, I knew it, but I was never feeling the lack.

It seems like so many people just churn through physical things as much as their budget allows, and somehow think that a bigger budget and more things will help. It never seems to, just more churn.

Again, it seems counterintuitive to cure materialism by advocating more attachment, but I try to frame the decision to buy a thing more like the decision to get a pet. I ask myself, will I love this thing, and if the answer is “no,” I don’t. This works pretty well all around. I tend to keep medium-term consumables (like T-shirts and socks) in rotation for longer than I probably should, but it’s worth it for the little joy I feel every time I put on a nice wool undershirt I love.

Franz011 on October 19th, 2018 at 11:31 UTC »

can we properly define materialism?

mvea on October 19th, 2018 at 10:56 UTC »

The title of the post is a copy and paste from the first, third and fourth paragraphs of the linked academic press release here :

If you’re a parent, you may be concerned that materialism among children has been on the rise. According to research, materialism has been linked to a variety of mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, as well as selfish attitudes and behaviors.

“Our findings show that it is possible to reduce materialism among young consumers, as well as one of its most common negative consequences (nongenerosity) using a simple strategy — fostering gratitude for the things and people in their lives,” writes researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin, associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago and coauthor of the study.

After studying a nationwide sample of more than 900 adolescents ages 11 to 17, Chaplin’s team found a link between fostering gratitude and its effects on materialism, suggesting that having and expressing gratitude may possibly decrease materialism and increase generosity among adolescents.

Journal Reference:

Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Deborah Roedder John, Aric Rindfleisch & Jeffrey J. Froh (2018)

The impact of gratitude on adolescent materialism and generosity,

The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2018

DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1497688

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2018.1497688

Abstract

Despite decades of research on materialism, there are few viable strategies for reducing materialism in younger consumers. In this paper, we present two studies conducted among over 900 adolescents that reveal a promising strategy for decreasing materialism: fostering gratitude. In Study 1, results from a nationally representative survey showed that children and adolescents with a grateful disposition were less materialistic. In Study 2, experimental evidence showed that an intervention designed to increase gratitude (i.e. keeping a gratitude journal) significantly reduced materialism among adolescents and also attenuated materialism’s negative effect on generosity. Using real money and donation as a behavioral measure, we found that adolescents who kept a gratitude journal donated 60% more of their earnings to charity compared to those in the control condition. We discuss the implications of our findings, offer some suggestions for putting our results into action, and provide an agenda for future research in this domain.