Economic socialization: Childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood

This chapter explains the ways in which children, adolescents, and early adults develop the economic knowledge and skills needed at respective stages in their lives as a framework for understanding economic socialization as a developmental progression of financial autonomy. It begins by providing a contextual framework for understanding economic socialization as a developmental process (i.e., leading to financial autonomy, a developmental task of late adolescence). Then, the chapter presents a review of the socializing role of parents before empirical support for the economic socialization process during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood is provided. The chapter further describes Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model to understand individual development towards financial autonomy. This model is based on the notion that development involves relations between individuals and multi-layered ecologies occurring across the lifespan. This lifespan developmental perspective incorporates the interacting and interrelated factors of the ever-changing social and cultural environment to which people adapt.