Material Parenting: How the Use of Goods in Parenting Fosters Materialism in the Next Generation

Marsha L. Richins and Lan Nguyen Chaplin

Journal of Consumer Research, 2015, vol. 41, issue 6, 1333 - 1357

Abstract: This research introduces the concept of material parenting, in which parents use material goods to express their love or to shape children's behavior. Despite the common use of material goods for these purposes, possible long term effects of material parenting practices have not been studied. This article addresses this oversight by examining the potential effects of material parenting on the material values of children once they're grown. This research proposes and tests a material parenting pathway, in which warm and supportive parents provide children with material rewards that in the long run foster materialism in adulthood. An insecurity pathway to materialism, previously proposed in the literature, is also examined. Results from three survey studies provide support for both pathways. Results also suggest that material parenting may influence children's material values by (possibly unintentionally) encouraging them to use possessions to shape and transform the self.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/680087 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/680087 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/680087

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().