An Investigation on Consuming Values and Behaviors of Chinese College Students——A Study on Consumerist Tendencies,Their Determinants and Influences in College Students in Beijing

The aim of this study was to investigate consuming values and behaviors in Chinese college students, to detect the factorial structure in consuming values, and to explore possible determinants of those values and their effects on consuming behaviors. A total of 778 students from various universities in Beijing were investigated with questionnaire survey. The main results and conclusions are as follows: (1) College students were basically satisfied with their current life and study conditions in university, and their main pressures or stresses were from their studies. They were highly motivated in the development of their academic and life careers, and also valued the importance of family and having children in the future. About 11% of the students had pressures due to less favorable financial conditions of their families. (2) Five basic consuming values were found among college students, namely, “industrious and thrifty-aimed value”, “status and brand-aimed value”, “personal and unique-oriented value”, “relation-aimed value”, and “autonomous-aimed value”. The “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” stands for the traditional consuming values in the culture, and the “status and brand-aimed value” shows an explicit tendency of consumerism. The other three consuming values had moderate relations with both of the two values. (3) There was a high negative correlation between the first two values, which showed both a general acceptance and the main trend of “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” among the students. The basic “status and brand-aimed value” was shown among 3.3% of the students. (4) The consuming values were significantly correlated with life values, indicating that consuming values could be in consistence with or be determined by basic life values. The “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” and the “autonomous-aimed value” were shown as collectivistic values, while the “status and brand-aimed value” and “relation-aimed value” were shown as individualistic values. (5) Consuming values had significant influences on consuming behaviors. (6) The demographic factors such as financial conditions of parents, children of number in family, urban-rural location of family, gender, age, and campus culture could affect consuming values and consuming behaviors of college students in both direct and indirect ways.本研究的主要目标是了解大学生现有消费价值观的结构、影响消费价值观的因素等。调查对象是778名大学生，年龄在17－24岁。主要研究结果如下： 1、现代大学生对自己现在的生活以及自己的学校整体是基本满意的；学生感受最深的心理压力是课业压力和人际压力，学生十分关注自己在经济和未来事业上的发展，同时也重视对家庭和子女的责任。大约有11％的学生对自己家庭经济条件的窘况感到压力。 2、大学生消费价值观有五种基本的因素组成，在本研究中，它们被命名为“品牌消费”、“节约消费”、“个性消费”、“目的消费”、“自主消费”，“节约消费”的消费价值观代表着传统的消费价值观，“品牌消费”代表了“消费主义”的消费价值观趋势，其他三种因素是介于这两种消费价值观因素之间。 3、“品牌消费”与“节约消费”表现出高度的负相关，“节约消费”的消费价值观被绝大多数学生认可，大约3.3％的学生接受“品牌消费”的消费价值观。 4、消费价值观与一般生活价值观有显著的相关，表明一般生活价值观会对消费价值观产生一定的影响或者表现出一致性。“节约消费”和“自主消费”表现出集体主义价值观的特点，而“品牌消费”和“目的消费”则表现出个体主义的价值观的特点。 5、消费价值观会对消费行为产生影响。 6、性别、学校内的校园文化、是否独生子女、年级、学生来源地，家庭经济状况等会以直接或间接的方式对大学生的消费价值观和消费行为产生影响