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Effects of family structure and socialization on materialism: a life course study in Thailand
Author(s) -
Nguyen Hung Vu,
Moschis George P.,
Shan Randall
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of consumer studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 1470-6423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2009.00778.x
Subject(s) - materialism , socialization , blueprint , life course approach , conceptual framework , sociology , psychology , social psychology , social science , developmental psychology , epistemology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , engineering
Consumer researchers have long been interested in understanding the development of materialistic attitudes and values in different cultural settings. The life course approach, which has developed recently as an interdisciplinary programme for studying various aspects of behaviour, was used as an overarching framework for studying the development of materialism in Thailand. Specifically, the paper first presents the general conceptual framework that serves as a blueprint for discussing theoretical perspectives. Next, hypotheses derived from life course perspectives are formulated, and a survey of young adults (ages 20 to 32) is used to test them. We found that family disruption influences materialism only among those young adults from lower social classes. Findings of this paper have implications for theory development and suggest directions for future research.