Exploring Parental Financial Communication and Its Influence on Money Attitudes in Indian Young Adults

Abstract

This research aims to explore the influence of parental financial communication on young adults money attitudes. This study uses a qualitative approach in order to gain insight into the perceptions, lived experiences and internalization of financial conversations between parents and young adults. For this study a sample of 15 college going young adults aged between 18- 25 were interviewed using a semi structured interview. Thematic Analysis methods were employed in order to explore the collected data. This led to the appearance of themes and sub themes such as (1) Communication, (2) Guidance, (3) Attitude and Behaviour, (4) Influence and (5) Psychological and Emotional Factors. The findings suggest that parental financial communication plays a significant role in developing adaptive financial attitudes and behaviours in young adults. These findings highlight the importance of early, open and informative financial conversations in a family setting in moulding a young adult’s financial decision making, values and habits.