Abstract:

Economic socialization is considered to be an important part of person's life affecting the prosperity of not only individuals but also the society. Topics of economic socialization, e.g. pocket money, knowledge of the structure of the domestic budget, which significantly affect the economic thinking of children and their future economic behaviour, are currently gaining social importance. In the economic socialization of children, parents' opinions and habits about money are considered to be one of the important and co-determinants of this process. The aim of our research was to find out the attitudes of individuals towards money based on their own childhood experiences and to find out their attitudes to the importance of the economic education of their children within the family. A total set of 113 Czech men and women aged 18 to 64 participated in the research. Other significant demographic variables monitored were the number of children (73% of the group had one or more children), marital status, education and employment. To obtain the data The Economic Socialization Questionnaire and the Money attitude scale were used. The results of the survey have pointed to some gender differences, for example, men have assumed greater responsibility for earnings from childhood, while the opinions and attitudes of the parents did not change significantly considering the age of respondents. Most of the respondents (over 80%) recommended starting money-saving education after the child's 4th year of age. Age was correlated with the importance of teaching children how to handle money, looking into the world of family economics and explaining to children the settings and importance of family budgets. More than 70% of respondents of the surveyed sample considered the normal use of debt today (loans and credits), while 45% of the respondents did not consider consumer loans (washing machines, televisions, etc.) to be an unwise solution to home furnishing.

Keywords:

Economic socialization, parents, children, attitudes, money.