Correlation between parental socialization and teaching and attitudes towards indebtedness among Portuguese higher education students Artigo de Conferência uri icon

resumo

  • Parental teaching and parental socialization are important to develop children's financial skills and their attitudes towards indebtedness. Thus, the objective of this research is to analyze the correlation between attitudes towards indebtedness and parental teaching and parental socialization. A study with a cross-sectional design was developed based on an accidental sample of 1290 students with age between 16 and 43 years old. To collect the data, a questionnaire with sociodemographic, parental socialization, parental teaching and attitudes towards debt variables was used. To measure parental socialization and parental teaching, seven variables were used. Finally, twelve variables were used to evaluate students' attitudes towards indebtedness. All variables, except for sociodemographic variables, were classified in a Likert scale of 5 points (1-totally disagree to 5-totally agree). IBM SPSS 24.0 software was used to compute: (1) relative and absolute frequencies for qualitative variables; (2) measures of central tendency and dispersion for quantitative variables; (3) Spearman test to study the correlation between two ordinal variables; (4) Cronbach Alfa test to analyze the reliability and the internal consistency of the answers. A significance level of 5% was used. The majority of the students was female, had Portuguese nationality, attended an undergraduate course, and lived in households of 3 or 4 people with a monthly income up to 800 euros. The parents had educational qualifications at the level of the 3rd cycle or secondary education. The Cronbach Alphas for parental socialization, parental teaching and students' attitudes towards indebtedness were 0.781, 0.818 and 0.700, respectively. The overall Cronbach Alfa was 0.833. The results showed statistically, significant, positive and weak correlations between student’s attitudes towards indebtedness and parental socialization (Rho = 0.137; Sig. = 0.000) as well as between indebtedness and parental teaching (Rho = 0.132; Sig. = 0.000). Parental financial behavior, as monthly expenditure monitoring, savings and investments, as well as dialogue with children about how to spend and to save money seems to have a positive contribution to student’s attitudes towards indebtedness.
  • Young people's attitudes towards money, which include higher education students, is one of the most studied research issues that is part of consumer socialization theme [1] and has been a common cause of concern among economists, psychologists and sociologists for more than three decades [2]. With the emergence of a global consumption culture, money has assumed an increasingly important role in people's lives [3]. Money-related attitudes are learned through the process of socialization established in childhood and maintained throughout adult life [4]. Attitudes and behaviors related to money determine the management and the financial well-being of an individual [5].

data de publicação

  • janeiro 1, 2018