Materialistic Kids Lack Parental Support

Kids

oi-Cara

By Cara

Friday, March 26, 2010, 12:37

Grooming of a teenager largely depends on the parental support. Parental support and accepting peer group are important factors responsible for making or refraining a child to become materialistic.

University of Arizona marketing researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin claims that adolescents have been characterized as the most materialistic generation in history.

Instead of just looking at how parents and peers encourage materialism in teenagers, we should focus on how they can decrease the tendency of becoming materialistic. Parents and peers are important sources of emotional support and psychological well being, which ultimately affects a teenager's level of materialism.

Instead of buying a mobile or a laptop on your child's birthday, take him out for a vacation. Spending more time with your children will make him or her more family oriented. Becoming materialistic will make them more dependent on gadgets and less attached to the family and friends.

Supportive parents and peers boost adolescents' self-esteem, which decreases their need to embrace material goods as a way to develop positive self-perceptions.

Parents should make an extra effort to reduce their adolescents' drive for material goods. Those who have supportive parents and an accepting peer group in their lives, are less materialistic.