Relationship among Materialism, Attitudes Regarding Money, Peer Influence and Satisfaction with Life in Chilean Adolescents

Abstract

Materialism has been recognized as an important variable in postmodern societies; however, most of the studies on this concept have focused on the adult population. The aim of the present study is to determine the possible association between materialism and life satisfaction, and the possible mediating role of attitudes towards money and peer influence in this association, in a sample of Chilean adolescents. A sample of 1325 Chilean secondary school students completed a questionnaire measuring materialism, attitudes in regards with money, susceptibility to peer influence, and satisfaction with life. First, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the scalers. Secondly, a theoretical model was tested using Hayes (2013) SPSS macro, PROCESS. The theoretical model included materialism as the predictor variable, satisfaction with life as the predicted variable, and attitudes towards money and susceptibility to peer influence as mediator variables. Results indicate that materialistic attitudes regarding money strengthens a negative relation between materialism and satisfaction with life. This tendency is not observed in susceptibility to peer influence despite being positively associated with materialism and attitudes regarding money. These findings suggest that the variables materialism and attitudes regarding money play a relevant role in the life satisfaction of Chilean adolescents.

Apuntes sobre la felicidad en las sociedades de consumo

“…En este escenario, el mercado se posiciona como el elemento articulador de la construcción de la identidad grupal e individual (Castellanos et al, 2020). El consumo, con base en la ideología neoliberal, relaciona a las personas cambiando la concepción de ciudadano por el de consumidor (Denegri et al, 2022). Así, incluso la interacción en espacios públicos es posible en la medida en que se tiene poder adquisitivo, es decir, el simbolismo del consumo no reside en comprar utilitariamente, sino también en el tipo de consumo; por ejemplo, en la marca, el estatus que genera, los grupos de referencia que usan los productos, entre otras cosas, ya que los objetos se vinculan a la construcción de la identidad social (Quintano y Denegri, 2021).…”