Materialism, affective states, and life satisfaction: case of Croatia

Abstract

In recent years, a number of studies have used Material Values Scale (MVS) to assess beliefs about importance to own material things. The aims of this study were to validate the MVS scale and to explore the relationships between materialistic values and well-being of Croatian citizens. The study was carried out on a representative sample of N = 1129 Croatian citizens. We used the short 9-item version of the MVS, life satisfaction rating, ratings of two positive (Positive affect) and four negative emotions (Negative affect) over the past month, and demographic variables (age, gender, income). The original dimensionality of the MVS was not confirmed; confirmatory factor analyses yielded two instead of three factors, Happiness and Centrality/Success. When controlled for income, gender and age, the Happiness dimension predicted Life satisfaction and both Positive and Negative affect, indicating that people who believed that the material goods in ones life leads to happiness reported to have lower life satisfaction, lower level of positive affect and higher level of negative affect over the past month. The Centrality/Success dimension was positively related to Positive affect, indicating that the belief that possessions play a central role in enjoyment leads to more frequent experiences of happiness and satisfaction over the past month.

Relationship Between Brand Jealousy And Conspicuous Consumption

“…Conspicuous consumption was measured by adopting the scale used by [14] which was developed by [15]. The level of materialism was measured by using Material Values Scale developed by [16], as used by [17]. This scale consists of 9-item short version form of Material Values Scale of [16].…”

Materialistic Value and Credit Card Usage as Predictors of Compulsive Clothing Buying among Young Adult Women

“…Based on research by Griffin et al (2004) Lipovčan et al (2015), the dimensions of centrality and success psychometrically do not measure different things, and thus it is recommended by these studies to consider centrality and success as one dimension jointly. Thus, in this study, centrality and success are considered one dimension.…”

“…While previous studies consistently show that materialistic value is a multi-faceted construct (Lipovčan, Prizmić-Larsen & Brkljačić, 2015;Richins, 2004), many studies treat materialistic value as a unidimensional construct when analyzing the relation between materialistic value and compulsive buying (Donnelly et al, 2013;Johnson & Attman, 2009;Yurchisin & Johnson, 2004). Those who developed the concept of materialistic value suggested that researchers should measure it with its multiple dimensions (Richins, 2004;Richins & Dawson, 1992).…”

“…Previous studies use the Materialistic Value Scale (Griffin, Babin & Christensen, 2004;Lipovčan et al, 2015;Müller et al, 2013;Richins, 2004;Richins & Dawson, 1992) to show that materialistic value consists of several dimensions which are: physical possessions as the center of one's life, the accumulation of possessions to increase happiness, and having possessions as a sign of success. Because empirical studies have shown that the dimensions of materialistic value are different from just materialism, this study will use the dimensions of materialistic value to predict compulsive buying behavior.…”

“…However, further studies conducted in several countries such as Russia (Griffin et al, 2004), Germany (Müller et al, 2013), and Croatia (Lipovčan et al, 2015) show that the dimensions of centrality and success do not have the psychometric properties to be considered different dimensions, and is thus combined as one dimension, while the dimension of happiness has consistently been shown to have a stable structure. Therefore, researchers generally use two dimensions in this concept.…”