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"When you grow up, the more money you have, the happier you are." "The only kind of job I want when I grow up is one that gets me a lot of money."
These are statements that the majority of 9-14-year-olds agree with, and its got parents and teachers concerned. Many social scientists have concluded that today's teens are "...the most brand-oriented, consumer-involved, and materialistic generation in history."
What causes teens to crave the latest from Gucci or Marc Jacobs? Previous research has suggested that teens learn these preferences from their parents and their peers. But in research forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Lan Nguyen Chaplin and Deborah Roedder John wondered if there was more to the obsession with designer labels than previously thought.