Materialistic values, health and wellbeing: The role of self-compassion

Abstract

The relationship between consumerism and wellbeing suggests that it all depend on our needs and motivation. A potential mediating factor is how compassionate we are towards ourselves. The main aims of the study were to investigate: 1) to investigate the relationship between materialism, experiential avoidance and experiential buying and health behaviour and wellbeing, and 2) to test if self-compassion mediates that relationship. A quantitative survey using questionnaire data collection assessed 702 participants, 34.3% males (n=241) and 65.7% females (n=461) on measures of materialism, experiential avoidance, experiential buying, self-compassion, health behaviour, and wellbeing. Findings show that materialism and experiential avoidance and buying are directly related to health behaviour and wellbeing and their effect is mediated by self-compassion. The findings suggest that attitudes and values towards materialism and consumerism should be considered as public health issues and provide a mechanism for intervening in the development of health behaviour and mental wellbeing