Predicting satisfaction with money management and life satisfaction in parents of emerging adult students

Zupančič, Maja (author), Lep, Žan (author)

Many 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.

• Language: English
• Keywords: education, university students, parents, financial dependece, money management, life satisfaction, sharing a household, emerging adulthood, young adults, money management satisfaction, parent–child financial relationships
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 51–65
• Numbering: Vol. 32, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-167727
• UDC: 159.92-93
• ISSN on article: 1573-3440
• DOI: 10.1007/s10804-024-09476-9
• COBISS.SI-ID: 191144451
• Publication date in RUL: 10.03.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of adult development
• Shortened title: J. adult dev.
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1573-3440
• COBISS.SI-ID: 513174041

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vzgoja in izobraževanje, visokošolsko izobraževanje, študentje, starši, finančni odnosi med starši in otroki, finančna odvisnost, upravljanje denarja, skupno gospodinjstvo, zadovoljstvo z življenjem, prehod v odraslost, mladi odrasli

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0062
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija