Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a worldwide public health crisis, reconfiguring daily and consumption practices, particularly in the acquisition of goods and services. The aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between psychological variables related to consumption and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in young people from La Araucanía region, Chile. For this purpose, a non-experimental cross-sectional study of correlational scope was carried out with a sample of 402 Chilean youths, to whom the following scales were applied: Satisfaction with life, Attitudes towards purchasing, Attitudes towards indebtedness, Material values and the Economic literacy test. A multiple linear regression analysis was carried out with life satisfaction as the dependent variable. The results showed that as the levels of attitudes towards compulsive buying and material values (beliefs regarding the importance of material possessions for personal satisfaction) of the participants increase, their levels of satisfaction with life decrease; the opposite is true for attitudes towards rational buying, economic literacy and impulsive buying. It is recommended to advance in studies that contribute to understand how these practices may be the product of a pandemic scenario and/or materialize in habits that are maintained over time.