Study finds boosting kids’ confidence deflates materialism on the cusp of adolescence
When ‘tweens beg for a pair of Hollister jeans or “Guitar Hero” for the holidays, they’re asking for more than an item of clothing or electronics. They’re trying to shore up their self-esteem.
Much has been written about how kids on the cusp of adolescence lose the confidence of childhood and enter a phase of insecurity and selfconsciousness. A new study from the University of Minnesota links those feelings to a spike in materialism at the same age. The good news for parents is that materialism seems to decline in later adolescence. The study also found that a simple boost to self-esteem can dramatically decrease materialism in kids of all ages.
Researchers have probed the link between self-esteem and adult consumer behavior, but an article published today in the Journal of Consumer Research is one of the first to look at how materialism changes over time in kids.
“It’s the perfect storm,” said Deborah Roedder John, the study’s co-author and a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. “Starting at age 11 or 12, children begin to understand so much about the complex meanings of products and brands, and that is the exact time when their self-esteem drops. They’re thinking, ‘I’m not feeling so good about myself. I don’t think I’m so popular. I don’t think kids like me. How do I solve that? Well, I know that popular kids wear Gap clothes and Nike shoes. So if I wear those, then I’ll be popular.”
s a hot topic. Kids today spend five times more money than their parents did at the same age. A recent national survey by the Center for a New American Dream found that 95 percent of adults say children are too focused on buying and consuming things, and almost 80 percent agree that limits should be placed on advertising to children.Advertising and peer pressure often are cited as causes of materialism in kids, but John said the factors are more complex.
For her study, she recruited 250 kids ages 8 through 18 at recreation centers and martial arts classes in St. Paul and Champaign-Urbana, Ill. She gauged their level of materialism by asking them to make a collage answering “What makes me happy?”
Participants could select among 100 words and images. Kids were deemed more materialistic if they included a higher number of possessions such as new clothes, money, a nice car or jewelry. Kids were considered less materialistic if their collages included more people, activities or achievements such as grandparents, skateboarding or getting good grades.
Eight- and 9-year-olds included about half the number of possessions that kids ages 12 and 13 did. Older teens listed fewer possessions than ‘tweens and more achievements. The results were a mirror image of self-esteem, which was highest in the youngest group, lowest among ‘tweens and higher again with older teens.
Kids want things from young age. A 6-year-old will beg for toys and may know dozens of brand names. But only as children mature do they understand that something like a Coach purse or an iPod can convey hipness and raise their status among peers. Materialism isn’t just having a lot of things, it’s believing those things will do something for you – bring you success, friends, prestige or happiness, John said.
“It’s a lot easier to go out and buy a pair of Nike shoes than it is to change your whole personality,” John said. “And that’s what a lot of people who study materialism in adults have also found.”
John said she hopes her research will help parents better understand what is going on when their ‘tweens beg for those $150 designer jeans that parents insist look just like the $20 pair at the discount store down the street.
“Parents get frustrated. They say, ‘I don’t understand why you want these expensive jeans. We can’t buy five pairs of jeans that cost $150, and three pairs of shoes that cost $100, plus a purse that costs $150. We don’t have the money for that,’ ” John said.
“I hear from parents all the time, ‘Why has my sweet child suddenly turned into this marketing maven, this person who wants expensive clothes, expensive computer games?’
“I think it might help if parents understood that their kids are really at a low point. They’re not feeling great about themselves. There are a lot of social things going on with their peers at school. They’re trying to figure out – ‘How do I get out of this mess?’ Material possessions offer them some hope.”
But before parents cave in and buy the jeans, they should take into account the second half of John’s research. She had camp counselors and other kids write nice things about a study participant onto a paper plate. The participants were told to sit at a table and read the words on the plate that referred to them. Several other “nice things about me” plates were left lying on the table, as if they belonged to other kids. But these plates had fewer nice words written on them.
When the kids made their happiness collages right after getting that shot of praise, they included many fewer material possessions. In fact, ‘tweens suddenly looked like 8-year-olds.
The study concludes that “simple actions to raise self-esteem among young consumers can have a dramatic impact on expressions of materialism.”
“I think the results are highly encouraging,” said Nathan Dungan, author of “Prodigal Sons and Material Girls: How Not to Be Your Child’s ATM” and founder of the Minneapolis-based organization Share Save Spend.
But Dungan cautions that low self-esteem doesn’t develop in a vacuum. Americans are subjected to 5,000 ad “impressions” daily, Dungan said, up from 3,000 a few years ago.
“Advertisers feed the insecurity in a very specific way,” Dungan said. “They know exactly what insecurities kids have, because they have them all in focus groups, and they message and create advertising accordingly – ‘You’ll feel cooler, more part of the group if you have x, y and z.’ They know exactly what moves kids.”
Dungan also noted that while John’s study may have found a drop in materialism in late adolescence, consumption and spending continue to be problems into young adulthood. Americans ages 25 to 34 carry an average credit card debt of $5,200, mostly related to consumer spending, he said.
To counteract those advertising messages, John and Dungan advise parents to steer their children toward experiences that bolster their sense of belonging and achievement – whether through volunteering as a family, playing soccer or learning the guitar.
Dungan said parents need to talk to their kids starting at a young age about the difference between their needs and their wants.
“Advertisers are culpable, but so are families who don’t talk about this stuff,” he said.
Dungan and John also recommend that parents put children in charge of some of their own purchases by giving them their own budgets for back-to-school clothing, for example, or providing an allowance.
Terri Buttleman, of Mendota Heights, did just that. She gives her three sons an allowance linked to chores, out of which they’re expected to pay for things beyond basic necessities. She and her husband have made one exception – they’ll pay half the cost of a trip abroad for each boy.
Last year, Buttleman’s 11-year-old son, Ross, really wanted a Wii. Many of his friends got the new video game console for Christmas. He saved his money for six months, talked his brothers into paying for the controllers and finally bought his Wii this summer.
“When they start to have to pay for things themselves out of their own hard-earned money, they aren’t so materialistic,” Buttleman said. “They learn that if they spend it on one thing, they don’t have it to spend on something else down the road that they may want more.”
Several years ago, Buttleman’s eldest son, Rhet, now 16, desperately wanted a pair of brand-name jeans that cost $80. His mom agreed to pay for half.
“He grew out of them within a few months,” Buttleman recalled. “He really took away a lesson from that. It was peer pressure and wanting to fit in and wanting to be with the cool kids. Then he realized, ‘Getting the pair of pants isn’t really going to make me any different than I was before. Getting new pants isn’t going to get me a new social life.”
Source: Pioneer Press, Maja Beckstrom, Published November 26, 2007
