According to the American Psychological Association (2015), nearly three in four Americans recently experienced or currently are experiencing stress about money management issues. Considering money and finance continuously have ranked as the top stressor among the Americans over the past years, it seems quite robust that money closely relates to individuals’ mental health. One of lesser known pieces of financial stress is how it is formed. Paying attention to this path is important because people perceive stress differently even in the same stressful situation. Park, Heo, Ruiz-Menjivar and Grable (2017) found external factors (i.e., social support) could relieve the negative impact of the stressor. However, little has been known about internal factors that are influential. Focusing on materialism, this study aims to identify the role of the personal internal state in shaping financial stress. The results showed that individuals with higher materialistic values perceive higher levels of stress.
