Will materialism lead to happiness? A longitudinal analysis of the mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction

Materialism represents the importance of possessions in one's life. While high materialism ones keep seeking happiness from external goals such as money, status, and appearance, self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be satisfied in order to experience well-being. However, materialism, as a type of extrinsic motivation, may forestall the fulfillment of psychological needs, and then undermine personal well-being. Drawing on the view of SDT, we conducted a longitudinal study to test how materialism indirectly influences subjective well-being (SWB) and depression via psychological needs satisfaction. Data was collected from Chinese students in three waves (with 6 and 12 months in between, respectively), and a total of 565 participants completed all of the three surveys. Using structural equation modeling, the cross-lagged model revealed that psychological needs satisfaction fully mediated the effects of materialism on SWB and depression. Specifically, materialism impairs individuals' psychological needs satisfaction, and in turn decreases SWB and increases depression.