Laura Ann Flurry and Krist R. Swimberghe
The purpose of this research is to offer a theoretical explanation for the perpetuation of materialistic values among adolescents. In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to offer a theoretical explanation for the perpetuation of materialistic values among adolescents. In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center (2019), adolescents in America say that having a lot of money is more important to them in their future than getting married or having children. This research answers the call for a theoretical explanation for the perpetuation of materialistic values among adolescents. Using person–environment fit (P-E fit) theory, this study argues that it is not the content of the values, but rather the fit between a person’s value priorities and the values prevailing in the environment which is crucial to well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
A national online panel was used to collect cross-sectional survey data from 278 families (adolescents aged 13–18 and their parents).
Findings
Findings indicate that adolescents in congruent value households express significantly greater life satisfaction and less depressed mood than adolescents in conflict value households. In fact, materialistic adolescents living in materialistic households expressed the greatest life satisfaction, a finding which contrasts with the current claims that materialism uniformly causes anxiety and depressed mood.
Research limitations/implications
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test person–environment fit theory in the context of the family and to offer this theory as a viable explanation of affluenza among America’s youth. The results of this study support the P-E fit theory and suggest that materialism is not universally associated with negative well-being, but rather that adolescents’ well-being is a function of the congruency of an adolescent’s values to his/her family environment.
Social implications
While materialistic socialization within the family does enhance the well-being of adolescents temporarily, it may also set adolescents up for a lifetime of harmful expectations from the pursuit money. A consistent pattern of overconsumption as a reward to adolescents may later produce materialistic adults who suffer from financial difficulties and mental health disorders. Disproportionate consumption further leads to environmental pollution.
Originality/value
No study to date has examined the impact of value congruence in the household (parent-child), as it pertains to the development of materialism in adolescents and its effects on adolescents’ well-being. This study suggests that highly materialistic adolescents can experience happiness from the pursuit of consumption. This offers insight into how a value deemed as detrimental as materialism continues to permeate in our society.
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Laura Ann Flurry, Krist R. Swimberghe and Janna M. Parker
Online communities designed to appeal to children are on the rise. The success of this marketplace phenomenon indicates that adolescents are likely candidates for brand community…
Abstract
Purpose
Online communities designed to appeal to children are on the rise. The success of this marketplace phenomenon indicates that adolescents are likely candidates for brand community membership; however, the literature has yet to examine this trend. This research aims to address this gap and establish the likely existence of brand community involvement among adolescents. It further seeks to explore the characteristics which may differentiate children who are more likely to become involved in brand communities and examine what impact their involvement may have on adolescents' psychological well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
A national online panel was employed to collect survey data from respondents aged 7-18 and their parents.
Findings
The results support the existence of a high brand community involvement segment among adolescents. Adolescents high in brand community involvement are found to display noteworthy differences in attitudes, values, and marketplace behaviors. Several interesting avenues of future research are proposed.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge this is the first study attempting to measure differences between adolescents who measure high and low in brand community involvement. Of particular interest are the results indicating that adolescents involved in brand communities may have important distinguishing attitudes and values and exhibit noteworthy differences in their marketplace behavior.
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Most of the literature on the World Bank struggles to understand precisely how effective are the Bank’s projects and policies, emphasizing at the same time as reaffirming certain…
Abstract
Most of the literature on the World Bank struggles to understand precisely how effective are the Bank’s projects and policies, emphasizing at the same time as reaffirming certain universal parameters with which to measure the good and the bad. This article, by contrast, argues for a different way of seeing the World Bank, that is, for scholarship that interrogates the political rationalities which underlie these distinctions and categories and which make these parameters and measures viable, necessary, and enduring. Indeed, most writings – including the innumerable self‐evaluations carried out by the Bank – simultaneously note the enormity of the Bank’s past misdeeds as well as its unique position as the only global institution up to the monumental task of translating global truths into global plans of action. Because of its unique role as the global development expert, the Bank is always two steps ahead of the pack, always re‐assessing and re‐tooling for improvement in ways that most national and international institutions cannot. Who else can respond so quickly to catastrophes around the globe – appearing one month in Thailand, the next in Argentina, and, in a bomb’s flash, in Afghanistan and Iraq? In a world in which global crises routinely erupt and “require” global experts of development to resolve them, the Bank and its affiliates in the World Bank Group have no rivals. But, rather than ask why the Bank’s responses are ultimately insufficient or flawed, we must first ask how problems get defined in terms of global crises and their solutions in terms of global development institutions in the first place? How did these ideas and institutions become so influential? What power dynamics do they embody?
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Racism in the United States is complex given the cultural logics that uphold notions of “post-race” or “colorblindness” as a means for understanding racialized events. The various…
Abstract
Racism in the United States is complex given the cultural logics that uphold notions of “post-race” or “colorblindness” as a means for understanding racialized events. The various forces at play within media institutions create paradoxes in the power that the media wields in society. Utilizing the concept of “media spectacle” and putting it into dialogue with colorblind racism, the author looks at local coverage of the 2009 arrest of Henry Louis Gates. The author’s primary concern is to identify not only the narratives that uphold or challenge colorblind racism during racialized events, but also the dynamic in which racialized events are mediated in contemporary society. Through a critical discourse analysis of two Boston newspapers, the author demonstrates the way colorblind racism adapts during a racialized event. This study demonstrates the contested nature of the media and nuance to the ways we understand colorblind racism in an increasingly mediated society.