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The role of family togetherness and right-wing attitudes in adolescent materialism
Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (2001) 363–365
The role of family togetherness and right-wing attitudes in adolescent materialism Eirini Flouri* Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, United Kingdom
1. Introduction The aim of this study of 124 British adolescent boys aged 13–19 is to establish if family togetherness and right-wing attitudes are related to consumer materialism. The role of the family environment in the development of consumption values has only recently attracted attention and all of the relevant studies have looked at isolated, specific characteristics of the family (such as parental values and parental socio-economic status) rather than the overall family climate and atmosphere (Moschis, 1985). Respect for traditional values (Inglehart, 1977, 1990), on the other hand, has been shown to be related to a materialist orientation in adults but again its role on adolescent materialism has not been previously investigated.
2. This study The anonymous questionnaire researching the views of teenage boys which was used in this study was printed in the Express newspaper on 16 March 1998. A total of 1344 boys returned the questionnaire but this number was further reduced to 124 [mean age 15.62 years (SD⫽ 2.02)] when unusable questionnaires were eliminated from the study. Only 5.6% of the sample reported that no-one in their household worked, which is significantly lower than the average proportion of workless households in Britain (19%) in 1998 (Living in Britain, 1998). The variables used in this study were materialism (participants rated in a 5-point scale to what extent ‘being rich’ ‘makes a boy popular’), age, family togetherness (assessed by
* Corresponding author. Tel.: ⫹44-0-1865-270325; fax: ⫹44-0-1865-270324. E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Flouri). 1053-5357/01/$ – see front matter PII: S 1 0 5 3 - 5 3 5 7 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 0 6 - 8
364
E. Flouri / Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (2001) 363–365
reports of how often the adolescent watches TV or videos with his family), respectfulness (assessed by self-reports on whether getting respect concerns him a lot), pressure into trying drugs (participants had to state whether they feel pressurized into trying drugs), and trust in the police (participants had to state whether they respect and trust the police). To explore what independently explains materialism, a stepwise linear regression was carried out. The results showed that materialism was inversely related to family togetherness (b ⫽ ⫺1.01), age (b ⫽ ⫺0.21), pressure into trying drugs (b ⫽ ⫺0.87) and trust in the police (b ⫽ ⫺0.49), and was positively related to respectfulness (b⫽0.90). All effects were significant (t⫽4.40, p ⬍ .001; t⫽3.57, p ⬍ .001; t⫽2.64, p ⬍ .01; t⫽2.16, p ⬍ .05, and t⫽3.47, p ⬍ .001, respectively), as was the overall relationship [F(5,94)⫽10.45, p ⬍ .001]. The model explained 32% of the variance observed in the dependent variable.
3. Discussion While it has been established in previous research that age and materialism are inversely related (e.g., Belk, 1985) and that materialism is related to achievement and respect concern (Netemeyer et al., 1995), as this study showed, some of the findings of this study are puzzling. First, materialists were shown to distrust the police, a finding which seems to be in contrast with Furnham and Okamura’s (1999) recent finding that materialism is related to right-wing attitudes, with Tepperman and Curtis’ (1995) finding that materialism is related to respect for authority, and with Braithwaite et al.’s (1996) finding that materialism is linked with the two social value orientation scales that have grown out of Rokeach’s (1973) work, namely national strength and order. Attitudes towards the police, however, have been found to be strongly influenced by deviance, parental defiance (Rusinko et al., 1978), and socioeconomic status (Amoroso & Ware, 1981). Although in this sample involvement with the police was not related to materialism (t⫽0.14, df.:113, p ⬎ .05), there were no data on socio-economic status or parental attitudes to police or parental defiance, and therefore it is not clear whether the teenager’s attitudes to police are not a proxy for these measures. The second puzzling finding is that materialists reported that they felt less pressurized into trying drugs than their nonmaterialist counterparts, which is in contrast with earlier findings that peer pressure and materialism are positively related (e.g., Flouri, 2000). It should be noted, however, that peer influence in earlier research was always related to consumer decisions alone. It may be that refusing the peer pressure to try drugs is a proxy for conservatism, or even moral reasoning, in which case the relationship is well-documented (e.g., Easterlin & Crimmins, 1991; Sotelo & Sangrador, 1999). Even so, however, and in line with previous research (Flouri, 2000), this study showed that the teenager’s report of his family togetherness alone was a very good predictor of his level of materialism.
Acknowledgment This study is part of the ‘Tomorrow’s Men’ project which was devised and coordinated by Adrienne Katz, Young Voice.
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References Amoroso, D.M., Ware, E.E., 1981. Adolescents’ perception and evaluation of police. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 13, 326 –335 Belk, R.W., 1985. Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world. Journal of Consumer Research 12, 265–280 Braithwaite, V., Makkai, T., Pittelkow, Y., 1996. Inglehart’s materialism-postmaterialism concept: Clarifying the dimensionality debate through Rokeach’s model of social values. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 26, 1536 –1555 Easterlin, R.A., Crimmins, E.M., 1991. Private materialism, personal self-fulfillment, family life and public interest: The nature, effects, and causes of recent changes in the values of American youth. Public Opinion Quarterly 55, 499 –533 Flouri, E., 2000. An integrated model of consumer materialism: Can economic socialization and maternal values predict materialistic attitudes in adolescents? Journal of Socio-Economics 28, 707–724 Furnham, A., Okamura, R., 1999. Your money or your life: Behavioral and emotional predictors of money pathology. Human Relations 52, 1157–1177 Inglehart, R., 1977. The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western republics. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Inglehart, R., 1990. Culture shift in advanced industrial society. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Living in Britain. 1998. Results from the 1998 General Household Survey. The Stationery Office, London. Moschis, G.P., 1985. The role of family communication in consumer socialization of children and adolescents. Journal of Consumer Research 11, 898 –913 Netemeyer, R.G., Burton, S., Lichtenstein, D.R., 1995. Trait aspects of vanity: Measurement and relevance to consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research 21, 612– 626 Rokeach, M., 1973. The nature of human values. Free Press, New York. Rusinko, W.T., Johnson, K.W., Hornung, C.A., 1978. The importance of police contact in the formulation of youth’s attitudes toward police. Journal of Criminal Justice 6, 53– 67 Sotelo, M.J., Sangrador, J.L., 1999. Correlations of self-ratings of attitude towards violent groups with measures of personality, self-esteem, and moral reasoning. Psychological Reports 84, 558 –560 Tepperman, L., Curtis, J., 1995. Popular images of the future: Cross-national survey results, 1981 and 1991. Futures 27, 549 –570.
The role of family togetherness and right-wing attitudes in adolescent materialism Eirini Flouri* Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, United Kingdom
1. Introduction The aim of this study of 124 British adolescent boys aged 13–19 is to establish if family togetherness and right-wing attitudes are related to consumer materialism. The role of the family environment in the development of consumption values has only recently attracted attention and all of the relevant studies have looked at isolated, specific characteristics of the family (such as parental values and parental socio-economic status) rather than the overall family climate and atmosphere (Moschis, 1985). Respect for traditional values (Inglehart, 1977, 1990), on the other hand, has been shown to be related to a materialist orientation in adults but again its role on adolescent materialism has not been previously investigated.
2. This study The anonymous questionnaire researching the views of teenage boys which was used in this study was printed in the Express newspaper on 16 March 1998. A total of 1344 boys returned the questionnaire but this number was further reduced to 124 [mean age 15.62 years (SD⫽ 2.02)] when unusable questionnaires were eliminated from the study. Only 5.6% of the sample reported that no-one in their household worked, which is significantly lower than the average proportion of workless households in Britain (19%) in 1998 (Living in Britain, 1998). The variables used in this study were materialism (participants rated in a 5-point scale to what extent ‘being rich’ ‘makes a boy popular’), age, family togetherness (assessed by
* Corresponding author. Tel.: ⫹44-0-1865-270325; fax: ⫹44-0-1865-270324. E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Flouri). 1053-5357/01/$ – see front matter PII: S 1 0 5 3 - 5 3 5 7 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 0 6 - 8
364
E. Flouri / Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (2001) 363–365
reports of how often the adolescent watches TV or videos with his family), respectfulness (assessed by self-reports on whether getting respect concerns him a lot), pressure into trying drugs (participants had to state whether they feel pressurized into trying drugs), and trust in the police (participants had to state whether they respect and trust the police). To explore what independently explains materialism, a stepwise linear regression was carried out. The results showed that materialism was inversely related to family togetherness (b ⫽ ⫺1.01), age (b ⫽ ⫺0.21), pressure into trying drugs (b ⫽ ⫺0.87) and trust in the police (b ⫽ ⫺0.49), and was positively related to respectfulness (b⫽0.90). All effects were significant (t⫽4.40, p ⬍ .001; t⫽3.57, p ⬍ .001; t⫽2.64, p ⬍ .01; t⫽2.16, p ⬍ .05, and t⫽3.47, p ⬍ .001, respectively), as was the overall relationship [F(5,94)⫽10.45, p ⬍ .001]. The model explained 32% of the variance observed in the dependent variable.
3. Discussion While it has been established in previous research that age and materialism are inversely related (e.g., Belk, 1985) and that materialism is related to achievement and respect concern (Netemeyer et al., 1995), as this study showed, some of the findings of this study are puzzling. First, materialists were shown to distrust the police, a finding which seems to be in contrast with Furnham and Okamura’s (1999) recent finding that materialism is related to right-wing attitudes, with Tepperman and Curtis’ (1995) finding that materialism is related to respect for authority, and with Braithwaite et al.’s (1996) finding that materialism is linked with the two social value orientation scales that have grown out of Rokeach’s (1973) work, namely national strength and order. Attitudes towards the police, however, have been found to be strongly influenced by deviance, parental defiance (Rusinko et al., 1978), and socioeconomic status (Amoroso & Ware, 1981). Although in this sample involvement with the police was not related to materialism (t⫽0.14, df.:113, p ⬎ .05), there were no data on socio-economic status or parental attitudes to police or parental defiance, and therefore it is not clear whether the teenager’s attitudes to police are not a proxy for these measures. The second puzzling finding is that materialists reported that they felt less pressurized into trying drugs than their nonmaterialist counterparts, which is in contrast with earlier findings that peer pressure and materialism are positively related (e.g., Flouri, 2000). It should be noted, however, that peer influence in earlier research was always related to consumer decisions alone. It may be that refusing the peer pressure to try drugs is a proxy for conservatism, or even moral reasoning, in which case the relationship is well-documented (e.g., Easterlin & Crimmins, 1991; Sotelo & Sangrador, 1999). Even so, however, and in line with previous research (Flouri, 2000), this study showed that the teenager’s report of his family togetherness alone was a very good predictor of his level of materialism.
Acknowledgment This study is part of the ‘Tomorrow’s Men’ project which was devised and coordinated by Adrienne Katz, Young Voice.
E. Flouri / Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (2001) 363–365
365
References Amoroso, D.M., Ware, E.E., 1981. Adolescents’ perception and evaluation of police. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 13, 326 –335 Belk, R.W., 1985. Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world. Journal of Consumer Research 12, 265–280 Braithwaite, V., Makkai, T., Pittelkow, Y., 1996. Inglehart’s materialism-postmaterialism concept: Clarifying the dimensionality debate through Rokeach’s model of social values. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 26, 1536 –1555 Easterlin, R.A., Crimmins, E.M., 1991. Private materialism, personal self-fulfillment, family life and public interest: The nature, effects, and causes of recent changes in the values of American youth. Public Opinion Quarterly 55, 499 –533 Flouri, E., 2000. An integrated model of consumer materialism: Can economic socialization and maternal values predict materialistic attitudes in adolescents? Journal of Socio-Economics 28, 707–724 Furnham, A., Okamura, R., 1999. Your money or your life: Behavioral and emotional predictors of money pathology. Human Relations 52, 1157–1177 Inglehart, R., 1977. The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western republics. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Inglehart, R., 1990. Culture shift in advanced industrial society. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Living in Britain. 1998. Results from the 1998 General Household Survey. The Stationery Office, London. Moschis, G.P., 1985. The role of family communication in consumer socialization of children and adolescents. Journal of Consumer Research 11, 898 –913 Netemeyer, R.G., Burton, S., Lichtenstein, D.R., 1995. Trait aspects of vanity: Measurement and relevance to consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research 21, 612– 626 Rokeach, M., 1973. The nature of human values. Free Press, New York. Rusinko, W.T., Johnson, K.W., Hornung, C.A., 1978. The importance of police contact in the formulation of youth’s attitudes toward police. Journal of Criminal Justice 6, 53– 67 Sotelo, M.J., Sangrador, J.L., 1999. Correlations of self-ratings of attitude towards violent groups with measures of personality, self-esteem, and moral reasoning. Psychological Reports 84, 558 –560 Tepperman, L., Curtis, J., 1995. Popular images of the future: Cross-national survey results, 1981 and 1991. Futures 27, 549 –570.