Parental influence on young adult children\u27s financial attitudes: Moderation effect of financial communication and family environments

The purposes of this study were to examine: (1) the influence of parental financial practices including parental avoidance of financial conversation and parental disclosure of financial information on young adult children’s financial behaviors; (2) the influence of family environment including parental bonding and conversation-oriented and conformity-oriented family communication patterns on young adult children’s financial attitudes; and (3) the moderating effect of parental financial practices and family environment on the association between parents’ financial behaviors and young adult children’s financial attitudes. Participants included 585 undergraduate students enrolled in a public university in the Midwestern United States. Participants included 156 men (26.7%) and 429 women (73.3%) ranging in age from 19 to 32 (M = 21.04 years, SD = 2.63). The majority of participants identified their ethnicity as White/Caucasian (n = 515, 84.6%), followed by Asian American (n = 36, 5.9%), Black or African American (n = 21, 3.4%), Latino or Hispanic (n = 17, 2.8%), and American Indian/Native American (n = 12, 2.0%) based on multiple answers. The direct effects of parents’ perceived financial behavior on young adults’ financial behaviors and indirect effects of that association mediated by young adults’ financial attitudes were tested using path analysis. In addition, moderation effects of five parental practices on the association between parents’ perceived financial behaviors and young adults’ financial attitudes were tested using a mediated moderation model: the five variables are parental avoidance of discussing financial issues, parental disclosure of financial information, parental bonding, conversation oriented family communication patterns, and conformity oriented family communication patterns. Results indicated that the five parental practices significantly predicted young adult children’s financial attitudes. In addition, these five parental practices significantly moderated the association between perceived mothers’ financial behaviors and young adult children’s financial attitudes. However, only parental bonding and conformity oriented family communication pattern moderated the association between perceived fathers’ financial behaviors and young adult children’s financial attitudes