Materialism among Chinese children in Hong Kong

Discusses the factors that determine a child’s sense of materialism, and how this can be measured, based on face‐to‐face interviews with 246 children to measure their responses to 14 items; the background to the study is a concern that advertising may influence children to steal in order to buy advertised products. Reviews the literature relating to consumer socialisation, which shows that children understand the concept of possession and value it from a very young age. Concludes that Hong Kong Chinese children do not endorse strongly materialistic values; younger children were more materialistic than older children, and, contrary to the research literature, the current study found no gender difference in materialistic values. Finds also that mere exposure to television advertising and programmes does not contribute to greater materialism.