The Cost of Materialism in a Collectivistic Culture: Predicting Risky Behavior Engagement in Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

The goals of the current study were to examine whether (a) negative events mediate the relationship between materialism and risky behavior engagement and (b) materialism moderates the relationship between stress and engagement in risky behaviors in Chinese youth. At Time 1, 406 adolescents (ages 14–19) from Yue Yang, China, completed measures assessing engagement in risky behaviors and the occurrence of negative events. Follow-up assessments occurred once a month for 6 months. In line with our hypotheses, results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that higher levels of negative events mediated the relationship higher levels of materialism and greater risky behavior engagement. In addition, adolescents who exhibited higher levels of materialism were more likely than adolescents possessing lower levels of materialism to report increased engagement in risky behaviors in response to negative life events. At the same time, the effect was only present in boys. Unexpectedly, girls who reported lower levels of materialism also exhibited increased engagement in risky behaviors in response to negative events.

Acknowledgments

The research reported in this article was supported by a Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation (CPRF) Award and a McGill University Sabbatic Leave Research Grant awarded to John R. Z. Abela.

Notes

*p < .05. ***p < .001.

*p < .05. ***p < .001.

Note: Gender = coded variable (0 = boy and 1 = girl).

*p < .05. ***p < .001.

¹Given that there may be overlap between interpersonal items contained within the ALEQ-R and RBQ-A, we have re-estimated all two- and three-way models after removing conceptually similar items from the ALEQ-R (i.e., 5 items). Despite removing these items, we obtained comparable results suggesting that our findings are not spurious in nature. Consequently, all analyses presented include the complete 57-item ALEQ-R and 20-item RBQ-A.

Note: Gender = coded variable (0 = boy and 1 = girl).

**p < .01. ***p < .001.