Materialism and Mental Health: A Negative Relation Not Moderated by Economic Status

Abstract

In light of the previous studies that have found a negative relation between materialism and various indicators of mental health, the present research aimed to examine the moderating effect of an individual’s objective and subjective economic status. Two different perspectives have been discussed regarding materialists’ poor mental health: discrepancy between high materialistic goals and reality, and unmet psychological needs resulting from the pursuit of extrinsic goals. Two studies were conducted to test the different predictions on the moderating effect of economic status that were made according to each perspective. In Study 1 (N = 169), we examined whether participants’ monthly household income (objective economic status) or perceived resource availability (subjective economic status) moderated the relation between materialism and psychological well-being, meaning in life, and depression. In Study 2 (N = 152), we recruited only currently employed individuals in order to control for the perceived power over their economic resources. In both studies, materialism was negatively related to various indicators of mental health. This relation was not moderated by individuals' objective or subjective economic status, supporting the unmet psychological needs perspective. We discuss implications of the results with regard to the prevalent materialism in contemporary Korean society.