The Role of Coviewing in the Development of Materialistic Attitudes

Abstract

Given the economic climate the United States is facing, understanding how consumers are socialized could help lead to solutions that could alleviate the average citizen's financial outlook. This study sought to explain the influence of coviewing on materialism among college students. Eighty-one undergraduates were surveyed about their exposure to television, frequency of coviewing with peers, and materialistic attitudes. For those students who coview more often, there is a positive relationship between television exposure and materialistic attitudes, r (48) = 0.294, p < .05. Given the negative impact of materialism on a person's life, the need to bring awareness to these findings is discussed.

Keywords:

• Coviewing
• Materialisitic Attitudes
• Television Exposure

Notes

Notes. Soaps = soap operas, Music = music television, Talk = talk shows, Mat. = materialistic attitudes.

^* p < .05.

Notes. R ² = 0.13 (p < .05) for Step 1; ΔR ² = 0.20 for Step 2 (p < .05). sr² = semipartial correlation squared. All coefficients are from the full model. Codes assigned to the sex and employment status variables were 0 = Male, 1 = Female and 0 = Not Employed, 1 = Employed.

^* p < .05.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer L. McCullough

Jennifer L. McCullough (PhD, The Ohio State University, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University.