Predicting Satisfaction with Money Management and Life Satisfaction in Parents of Emerging Adult Students

Abstract

AbstractMany parents cope with the prolonged financial dependence of their emerging adult children and problems arising from sharing a household, which may challenge parental satisfaction with money management (SMM) and life satisfaction (LS). We created and tested a conceptual model of potential pathways to parental SMM and LS. Data were collected in a sample of 482 student–parent pairs via an online survey that included adjusted questionnaires on financial functioning (Shim et al., Journal of Youth and Adolescence 39:1457–1470, 2010) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., Journal of Personality Assessment 49:71–75, 1985). Relying on the model of financial satisfaction from the student perspective (Sirsch et al., Emerging Adulthood 8:509–520, 2020), we proposed pathways of the family SES, financial parenting (explicit teaching and financial behavior; parent report; 22.8% fathers), and parent–child financial relationships (student report; Mage = 19.94; 45.2% males) to parental SMM and LS. We also anticipated intermediate relations of financial parenting with the students' self-reported financial learning outcomes (cognitive and behavioral/relational). The SES, proactive parental financial behavior, and favorable parent–child financial relationships predicted parental SMM and LS. Financial parenting was linked to the student's positive financial learning outcomes, but only financial knowledge further influenced the financial relationship with their parents. The findings suggest the benefits of successful parental financial socialization for both the offspring's finance-related outcomes and their parents' satisfaction.