Materialism and Its Effect on Psychiatric Morbidity of Indian Students

The emergence of globalization and consumerism in the modern world has led to an inevitable consequence in the form of materialism which has an undeniable influence on psychological well-being. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of materialism on psychiatric morbidity, with respect to state and trait anxiety, depression and global psychiatric morbidity. Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected following purposive technique from 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students categorized with respect to grade and sex. Analysis of data was done employing descriptive statistics and three-factor factorial analysis of variance. The results revealed significant effects of grade, materialistic value, intrinsic aspiration and hedonistic aspiration on the different aspects of psychiatric morbidity. However, no such effect was found for sex, extrinsic aspiration and spiritual aspiration. The findings may contribute to the understanding of the role of a materialistic culture in the mental health of Indian students.