COMPARISONS TO OTHERS, PAST EXPERIENCE, AND PRESENT STATUS AS DETERMINANTS OF SATISFACTION WITH MATERIAL CONSUMPTION AND SATISFACTION WITH WAY OF LIFE

The objectives of this study were: (1) to investigate the relative importance of comparisons to others, past experience, and present status as determinants of satisfaction with material consumption and with way of life; and (2) to examine individually satisfaction with material consumption and with way of life by using a different set of independent variables for each of them.;The final regression model for satisfaction with way of life had an adjusted R('2) of .38, with five significant variables: wife's health compared to others, wife's satisfaction with her husband's job, wife's satisfaction with her work status, wife's satisfaction with her marriage in general, and change in satisfaction with level of living, all positively related.;Findings indicate comparisons to others are not more important as determinants, as hypothesized, but of equal importance to past experience and present status. Present satisfaction variables used in the regression analysis were suspected of distorting the importance of other variables, so the regression analysis was rerun with present satisfaction variables omitted. The adjusted R('2)'s for satisfaction with material consumption and with way of life were .29 and .28, respectively. Still, no one group of variables was more important than the others in determining satisfaction with material consumption and with way of life. Future research could establish more clearly the process of determining satisfaction through the use of path analysis.;Factor analysis of the independent variables was used for data reduction and strengthening. Multiple regression was the method of analysis used in finding significant determinants of the two dependent variables. The final regression model for satisfaction with material consumption had an adjusted R('2) of .37. Eight variables were significantly related to satisfaction with material consumption: age of the wife, wife's perception of most people's satisfaction with material things they have and consume, food and clothing comparisons, changes in material status over the past several years, present financial satisfaction, and present food and clothing satisfaction, all positively related; age of the youngest child at home and change in income adequacy, negatively related.