Consuming in a Consumer Culture: College Students, Materialism, Status Consumption, and Compulsive Buying

The emergence of a worldwide consumer culture has potentially severe negative consequences. A primary objective of the present study urn to investigate the relationships between materialism, status consumption, and compulsive buying in a sample of young adults in the United States. Why materialism and status consumption? Because materialism and status consumption are the cornerstones of the consumer culture. A negative by-product of the consumer culture is compulsive buying ([@R41]; [@R40]). Study results revealed elevated levels of compulsive buying among U.S. college students. A hierarchical regression analysis found that [@R35] “Acquisition Centrality” and “Acquisition as the Pursuit of Happiness” dimensions of materialism were important motivating factors behind compulsive buying.