Perceived Parental Upbringing and the Materialism of Young Adults

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine whether the level and structure of young adults’ materialism varied depending 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. The sample comprised 453 individuals: 335 women (74%) and 118 men (26%). The results indicated that parental attitudes toward upbringing played an important role in forming materialistic orientations in young people. Materialism is associated with parental attitudes of rejection and over-protection. A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to determine whether the level and structure of young adults’ materialism varied depending on their parents’ attitudes toward upbringing. The analysis revealed that groups with different perceptions of these parental attitudes viewed them solely within the scope of variables describing materialism as the importance of possessing and acquiring money to fulfill one’s main goals in life (that being the case for all its dimensions). The “traditional” understanding of materialism (and the most common one in specialist literature), that is, regarding the possession of material goods as a source of happiness and an indicator of success in life, was non-differentiating.