Materialistic values and well-being among business students: Further evidence of their detrimental effect

According to an environmental-match perspective regarding the content of values (Sagiv & Schwartz, 2000), extrinsic or materialistic values should positively predict well-being in populations in which extrinsic values match with the environmentally promoted values (e.g., among business students), while intrinsic values should positively predict well-being in populations in which an intrinsic value pursuit is encouraged and reinforced. In contrast, according to other value researchers (Kasser & Ahuvia, 2002), attaching high importance to materialistic values should also negatively predict well-being in extrinsic value oriented environments. Although the present study shows that business students ascribe higher importance to extrinsic values than infant school teacher students, the negative relation of extrinsic values with well-being and the positive relation with internal distress and drug use was not moderated by the department students belonged to. Finally, mediational analyses revealed that value orientations could account for the fact that business students report lower well-being and higher drug use in comparison to infant school teacher students.