The Role of Teens’ and Parental Intrinsic and Materialistic Goals in Teens’ Activities in Four Domains of Activism

Abstract

The study is aimed at determining how teens’ intrinsic and materialistic goals and the importance of these goals for their parents are related to teens’ activities in four domains of activism—political activism (PA), social activism (SA), environmental activism (EA) and consumer activism (CA). A total of 459 Polish teens aged 16–18 were surveyed, and data was collected using a computer-assisted web interview technique. The results show that teens’ preference for materialistic goals negatively correlates with their activities for SA, EA and CA, while preference for intrinsic goals positively correlates with activities for EA and CA. Moreover, mothers’ materialistic goals positively correlate with teens’ activities for PA and SA, while intrinsic goals negatively correlate with teens’ activities for PA. Fathers’ materialistic goals positively correlate with teens’ activities in all four domains of activism, and intrinsic goals positively correlate with teens’ activities in all the domains except SA.