Materialism, Egocentrism and Delinquent Behavior in Chinese Adolescents in Mainland China: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Although research generally showed that holding materialistic beliefs would lead to poor developmental outcomes, few studies have used adolescent delinquency as an outcome measure. In addition, the intervening processes between materialism and adolescent developmental outcomes are unclear. In particular, it is not clear how materialistic beliefs influence egocentrism and adolescent delinquency. Methodologically, the existing studies have several weaknesses, including small samples, cross-sectional research designs, and being limited to people living in Western cultures. Using two waves of data collected from Sichuan, China (N = 4981), we studied the predictive effect of adolescent materialism on delinquency and the mediating role of egocentrism. Over two occasions separated by six months, students aged 11 and above responded to a questionnaire evaluating adolescent materialism, egocentrism, and delinquency (mean Wave 1 age = 13.15, range between 11 and 20.38). Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that materialism at Time 1 positively predicted Time 2 egocentrism. Additionally, Time 1 materialism positively predicted the level and change in Time 2 delinquency. Finally, based on 5000 bootstrap samples with gender, age, ethnic group, and Time 1 delinquent behavior as covariates, PROCESS analyses showed that egocentrism partially mediated the influence of Time 1 materialism delinquency and its change at Time 2. This study suggests that materialistic beliefs shape egocentrism, which further strengthens adolescent delinquent behavior. This study also replicates the findings of a pioneer study in China reported previously.

Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Health of University Students in Hong Kong: What Happened One Year After the Occurrence of COVID-19?

“…In addition, the results of reliability analyses showed that the items measured homogenous concepts and had good internal consistency. In the present study, we treated the scales as a whole without looking at the specific dimensions, which is not uncommon in social science research (37)(38)(39)(40).…”

Impact of Family Functioning on Adolescent Materialism and Egocentrism in Mainland China: Positive Youth Development Attributes as a Mediator

“…In addition, the findings of our previous paper have revealed significant influence of family functioning and positive youth development attributes on adolescent delinquency [ 47 ]. As materialism and egocentrism have been found to contribute significantly to adolescent delinquency (e.g., [ 47 , 84 ]), the findings of this paper may help us develop a more thorough understanding about the beneficial influence of good family functioning on the reduction of delinquency of adolescents. That is, family functioning and positive youth attributes may assist in preventing delinquency of adolescents via reducing materialism and egocentrism of adolescents.…”

Effects of Materialism on Adolescents’ Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Empathy

“…For example, an Israeli study has shown that materialism is a trigger of road aggressiveness [17]. According to a study based on a sample of Chinese adolescents, materialism positively predicted delinquent behavior [8]. Hence, whether materialism is predictive of adolescent aggressive behavior remains out of focus.…”

“…This research investigates the relationships between adolescents' materialism and prosocial and aggressive behaviors, and tests the mediating effect of empathy. Based on the theoretical claim that values guide individual behavior and the dehumanizing perspective of materialism, as well as the empirical literature regarding the detrimental impact of materialism on adolescent behavioral development [7][8][9], we formulated the hypotheses of the study. We hypothesized that materialism would be associated with prosocial behavior negatively (Hypothesis 1) and be associated with aggressive behavior positively (Hypothesis 2).…”

“…With respect to the causes, adolescent materialism is mainly shaped via two pathways: via the experiences that elicit insecurity feelings and via exposure to the social models that encourage materialistic goals/values [6]. With regard to consequences, previous research has shown that adolescent materialism is predictive of increased risky behavior engagement [7], more delinquent behavior [8], lower generosity [9], and so on. Research has highlighted such behavioral consequences, yet whether adolescent materialism affects other kinds of behaviors remains unknown.…”