Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between parental academic achievement pressure (PAAP) and materialism, and the moderating effect of identity clarity between the two. We recruited participants (N = 119) from a private university in South Korea. Participants completed self-report measures of PAAP and dispositional materialism. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the following two conditions: identity clarity or control condition. Participants in the identity clarity condition were asked to write about the experiences in which they clearly felt about and grasped their self-identity. On the other hand, participants in the control condition were asked to describe what had happened the day before without including any subjective thoughts and feelings. Right after the writing task, participants completed a measure of state materialism. Supporting our hypotheses, PAAP and dispositional materialism were positively related. Also, in the identity clarity condition, participants showed decreased state materialism relative to dispositional materialism, while no significant change between dispositional and state materialism was observed in the control condition. Lastly, identity clarity manipulation moderated the relation between PAAP and state materialism. Specifically, the positive relation between PAAP and state materialism was observed in the control condition, but not in the identity clarity condition, after controlling for dispositional materialism, gender, age, and school year. Implications and future directions are discussed.