Material Values Scale — Short Forms

What it measures

Provides four validated short forms of the Richins & Dawson (1992) MVS, derived across 15 samples (n=110–639; total n=4,736) and cross-validated in n=402. Average alpha: 15-item 0.86, 9-item 0.82, 6-item 0.75, 3-item 0.63. Richins (2004) cautions against using the 3-item version. Nomological validity correlations with Belk's materialism scales, personal values, possession value sources, and windfall expenditures are highly similar across all short-form versions. The 9-item version (alpha=0.84 in cross-validation) is recommended as the optimal balance of brevity and psychometric quality. Note: the short-form items use a standard 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree direction — opposite to the full 18-item MVS.

Representative items

• I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes. (Success — in all versions)
• I like a lot of luxury in my life. (Centrality — in all versions)
• I'd be happier if I could afford to buy more things. (Happiness — in all versions)
• The things I own say a lot about how well I'm doing in life. (Success — in 15, 9, 6)
• Buying things gives me a lot of pleasure. (Centrality — in 15, 9)

Citation

Richins, M.L. (2004). The Material Values Scale: Measurement properties and development of a short form. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 209–219.