Abstract
Using expectancy-value theory as a framework, we examined the independent effects of both early parental and personal financial expectations and values on emerging adults’ later financial behaviors and financial well-being during the college-to-career transition. Data were collected at three time points over 8 years from a cohort of college-educated emerging adults (N = 754 participants from a larger longitudinal study). The main finding showed that emerging adults’ personal expectations and values, but not parental values or expectations, predicted the financial behaviors they practiced in college; early parental expectations predicted financial well-being after leaving college. The financial behaviors practiced in college were associated with subsequent financial well-being. Finally, college financial behavior mediated the effect of early personal values on subsequent financial well-being, but not personal financial expectations. We discuss the findings in regard to facilitating emerging adults college-to-career transition.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 66-75 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Emerging Adulthood |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors received following receipt of financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article is funded by National Endowment for Financial Education, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Citi Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood and SAGE Publishing.
Keywords
- emerging adults
- expectations
- financial behavior
- financial well-being
- internal and external motivators
- values