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Category: Project

Description: The main goal of the project is to investigate how income inequalities and the associated with them experiences of economic deprivation affect materialism of the new generations, i.e. children who are now preschoolers. However, to better explain the development of materialism in the early stages of life we would also like to explore psychological mechanisms that will better explain the relation between economic deprivation and materialism of preschoolers. Poor people are exposed to much greater deprivation of economic needs and are more likely to experience negative emotions (e.g. frustration, humiliation) what may lower their self-esteem. Nevertheless, people often defend themselves against a decline in self-esteem by, among others, building materialistic attitudes and attributing high subjective value to money. Therefore, we would like to explore the mediating role of children’s self-esteem in the relation between economic deprivation and materialism. Moreover, materialism (linking material goods and money with personal worth, happiness and social status, etc.) requires the ability to think about the thoughts of others, so we suggest that Theory of Mind (ToM) may play a crucial role in materialism formation. The main objectives of this project are to examine: (a) whether economic deprivation in preschool children would be positively associated with children's materialism and subjective valuation of money, (b) whether self-esteem (explicit and implicit) would mediate the relationship between economic deprivation and children’s materialism as well as subjective valuation of money, and (c) whether the direct/or indirect associations between economic deprivation and children’s materialism (as well as subjective valuation of money) would be moderated by children’s ToM. The proposed project comprises four stages, during which six studies will be performed. About 900 children and 200 parents will take part in the studies. Stage I − establishing psychometric properties of the child's implicit self-esteem measure Stage II – study 2 – a correlation study that will verify the relationship between the economic deprivation and the level of materialism of a child as well as the subjective valuation of money. The study will also analyze the mediating role of children's self-esteem (explicit and implicit) and the moderating role of ToM. Stage III – studies 3-4 – experimental research that will verify how the experience of personal relative deprivation (PRD) affects the level of materialism and subjective valuation of money in children. It will also analyze the mediating role of children's explicit and implicit self-esteem, as well as the moderating role of ToM. Stage IV – studies 5-6 – experimental research verifying how increasing child’s self-esteem translate into the child's materialism level and subjective valuation of money. Moderating role of ToM will be also analyzed. They will also verify the moderating role of theory of mind for those relationships.