Emerging adults’ financial conversations with parents as mediators of family communication patterns and financial Independence

ABSTRACT

This study examined emerging adults’ financial conversations with parents as mediators of family communication patterns (FCPs) (i.e., family conversation and conformity orientations) and emerging adults’ financial independence (i.e., financial autonomy and self-efficacy). Participants included 202 emerging adults ages 18 to 25. Whereas conversation orientation positively predicted both financial self-efficacy and autonomy, conformity orientation positively predicted only financial autonomy. Indirect associations emerged between both FCP orientations and financial autonomy via the frequency of financial conversations with mother, whereas indirect associations between both FCP orientations and financial self-efficacy emerged via financial conversations with father. The findings extend FCP theory by illuminating distinct explanatory pathways from the family communication environment to financial socialization in emerging adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Conversation orientation
• conformity orientation
• financial conversations
• financial autonomy
• financial self-efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The questioning parents’ beliefs/authority subscale was uncorrelated with the other three subscales of the ECOS (likely due to the four reverse-coded items comprising the subscale). Hence, we dropped this subscale from further analysis and identified the latent construct of conformity orientation and the interaction with conversation orientation using only the first three subscales of the ECOS.

2. Among their top 10 recommendations, Becker et al. (2016) encourage researchers to take a cautious approach and to be certain that statistical controls are theoretically justified and appropriate to include in a given study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Schrodt

Paul Schrodt (Ph.D., University of Nebraska – Lincoln) is the Philip J. and Cheryl C. Burguières Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Christian University.

Madison George

Madison George (M.S., Texas Christian University).

Andrew M. Ledbetter

Andrew M. Ledbetter (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is a Professor.