Curiosity and Materialism in Children: A Statistical Suppression Pattern Involving Internet Use and the Moderating Role of Conditional Material Rewards

This cross-sectional study examined the associations among curiosity, general Internet-use frequency, conditional material rewards, and children’s materialism. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a convenience sample of students in Grades 3–6 from one primary school in Wuhan, China. The Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II, the Children’s Internet Use Scale, the Youth Materialism Scale, and the conditional material rewards subscale of the Material Parenting Questionnaire were administered, and 454 valid responses were retained for analysis. PROCESS Model 14 was used to estimate a conditional indirect-association model, controlling for sex and age. Curiosity was not significantly associated with materialism at the zero-order level. However, after Internet use and covariates were included, curiosity showed a negative conditional direct association with materialism: B = −0.12, 95% CI [−0.22, −0.03]. The estimated indirect association between curiosity and materialism through Internet use was positive at the mean level of conditional material rewards: Effect = 0.10, 95% bootstrap CI [0.06, 0.15]. The PROCESS index of moderated mediation was significant—Index = 0.03, 95% bootstrap CI [0.002, 0.067]—indicating that the indirect association varied as a function of conditional material rewards. These findings suggest a statistical suppression pattern in this sample and indicate that general Internet-use frequency and conditional material rewards may be jointly associated with children’s materialism.