Adolescent Autonomy and the Impact of Family Structure on Materialism and Compulsive Buying

Abstract

Although divorce is a common and highly stressful event, marketing scholars know little about the impact of family structure on materialism and compulsive buying. Extending the earlier work of Roberts, Manolis, and Tanner (2003), which utilized a sample of adolescents between ages 11 and 15, this study finds that the impact of family structure on materialism expands beyond the happiness dimension of materialism to include the centrality and success dimensions of materialism in older adolescents (16 to 19). Moreover, family structure is also found to directly affect compulsive buying. It appears that the increasing autonomy that accompanies adolescent development affects the consumer outcomes of divorce. Marketing's contribution toward a better understanding of the consumer outcomes of family disruptions can be enhanced by further refinement of the original Rindfleisch, Burroughs, and Denton (1997) model. Future research that incorporates coping resources and strategies into the model will likely prove illuminating.