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Abstract: What causes adolescents to develop consumer' ethical beliefs? Prior research has largely focused on the negative influence of peers and negative patterns of parent-child interactions to explain risky and unethical consumer behaviors. We take a different perspective by focusing on the positive support of parents and peers in adolescent social development. An integrative model is developed that links parental and peer support with adolescents' self-worth motives, their materialistic tendencies, and their consumer ethical beliefs. In a study of 984 adolescents, we demonstrate support for a sequential mediation model in which peer and parental support is positively related to adolescents' self-esteem and feelings of power, which are each associated with decreased materialism as a means of compensating for low self-worth. This reduced materialism is, in turn, associated with more ethical consumer beliefs.

Keywords: Ethics; Adolescent consumers; Materialism; Self-esteem; Power; Peer support; Parental support

JEL-codes: M31

33 pages, August 20, 2018

Note: This is a pre-print of an article published in Journal of Business Ethics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3137-3

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