Childhood family experiences and young Generation Y money attitudes and materialism

One in four Generation Y is raised in disruptive single-parent/income family structures, where stress, economic and emotional hardships are experienced. This study uses a life-course approach to examine how two childhood family experiences (family resources received during childhood and perceived stress from disruptive childhood family events) affect later-life money attitudes and materialism. The study also assesses the mediating role of money attitudes in the childhood family experiences-materialism relationship. Young (18-25 years) Generation Y South-Africans (N = 826) were surveyed. Results show that perceived stress had a strong positive impact on later-life affective money attitudes (status and worry), but not on later-life materialism. Family resources received had significant impact on later-life affective and conservative money attitudes. Money attitude dimensions mediated the family resources-materialism relationship but not the stress-materialism relationship.