The role of self-control and regulatory foci in money-saving behaviours among children

Abstract

AbstractThe studies aimed to discover if it is possible to increase children’s ability to defer consumption in favour of saving money by drawing attention to the importance of self-control and by inducing regulatory focus of promotion or prevention. The first study confirmed that economic behaviours of children are connected to their level of self-control. Next, in two experimental studies, self-control and regulatory focus were experimentally induced in 9- to 11-year-old children. The second study (n = 158) showed that self-control activation results in preference of saving over immediate consumption for boys but not for girls. The third study (n = 144) showed that promotion regulatory focus activation results in preference of saving over immediate consumption, while after the activation of prevention regulatory focus, children prefer immediate consumption. The results indicate that sole activation in children’s thinking about the importance of self-control or about specific self-regulation motivations may influence saving behaviours. Nevertheless, due to the fact that males and females differ in self-control levels and in motivation for goal pursuit, inducing self-control or specific regulatory focus in children may have different effects on economic decisions, depending on a child’s gender.