Development of Children's Concept of Money (Part 2)

Relating to Home Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discuss how children develop their concept of money. In this article, we discuss the relationship of home education to the child's concept of money based on data compiled from 224 mother-child pairs (102 kindergarteners and 112 3rd grade elementary school pupils).
The study revealed the following :
(1) There are different outlooks on home education between mothers and children. Mothers think they educate their children in daily life, yet children don't receive educational messages from their mothers. As children develop, it becomes easier to receive advice about how to use money and not to waste, though it is difficult even for 3rd grade elementary school pupils to receive suggestions on the relationship of money and labor.
(2) On the concept of money, we can find little relation between the mother's answer and the child's answer. Kindergarteners partly tend to be more influenced by their mothers than older children.
(3) The majority of 3rd grade elementary school pupils is “steadily oriented traditional response type” on the concept of money, and that of their mothers is “social related human oriented saving type.”
(4) In the case of mothers, their concepts of money is “personal related object oriented consuming type, ” their children's concept tends to be “fame oriented traditional response type.” The mothers who recognize that they don't give their children advice or suggestions, also recognize that their children don't help in home life and complain about allowance. They tend to have children who are “steadily oriented trend adaptable response type.”