Materialistic Behavior in Adolescents and Children: A Meta-analysis of the Antecedents and Consequents

Abstract This paper proposes a meta-analysis of antecedents and consequences of materialistic behavior among children and adolescents. We detected 42 studies, selected from five databases, which generated 53 effect sizes involving an aggregate sample of 9,283 children and adolescents. We proposed a theoretical model based on four antecedents, four consequents and three moderating variables. The results showed a direct and significant relation between materialistic behavior by children and adolescents in most of the antecedent and consequent variables. Furthermore, we found that life satisfaction held a negative relation with materialistic behavior. As for the moderating effects, we confirmed that survey location has a significant influence on effect sizes. Regarding the moderating effect of the sample size and country of application, they do not exert influence on the effect size. In addition to its outcomes, this meta-analysis offers a remarkable theoretical contribution, which provides a consistent theoretical review that resulted in the quantitative integration of the main constructs associated with the antecedents and consequents of materialistic behavior in children and adolescents.