Effects Of Materialism On Children

Materialism is the most common malady of modern world. Much had been written on these issue, but it is still hard to reveal a real implication. The term materialism has been explored in sociology and economics. In economic point of view, it is identified as the value that an individual is looking for self happiness, wherein in sociology it is considered as the obsession individual shows for materialistic things in the competitive world (Easterlin and Crimmins, 1991). People live in a society that promotes materialism and by installing this habit into their descendants, they perpetuate it in the future generations. Nowadays materialism takes part in everyone’s life despite of their social classes. The materialistic people hardly treat

Marketers are putting all their efforts for influencing them towards their product. Materialism has become concern for the researchers due to its impacts on the development of children. Children have become a huge market segment. Marketers spend billions on advertisements to draw their attention. Media makes alert about the new product in such a way that children start connecting their happiness with it. These advertisements enhance the level of materialism among children because of their incapability to understanding the real worth of the products targeted at them. Materialistic attitude of children impacts their interpersonal relations that causes conflict between parent and child. Various studies have identified that the level of materialism among children is increasing over time. A survey conducted in UK revealed that children have become more materialistic these days compared to their previous generations (GfK Social Research, 2007). To overcome the effect of materialism, adequate consideration needs to be given by parents to deflect the attention of children from the media to the real

Often children are taught that their success and happiness in life is stated by how much possession they will have. This kind of upbringing leads child to the materialistic character. After that children in school and then in universities evaluate each other from the materialistic point of view. Psychologists in Poland University make a survey and the aim of the study was to determine whether the level of adults’ materialism depends on parental attitudes toward upbringing and whether a negative assessment of the family of origin’s material situation and a low level of meeting material needs in childhood contributed to the formation of materialistic attitudes. 453 individuals had been surveyed. The results show that parental attitudes toward upbringing played an important role in forming materialistic orientations in young people. (Magdalena Poraj-Weder, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw Poland) Classic rational choice theory emphasized that individuals driven by materialism break the law based on the relative benefits and costs. (Lanier & Stuart, 2009,). Sociologists say that rational choice that individuals make is often affected by social