Family Financial Socialization in Black Families

The goal of this dissertation was to advance understanding of family financial socialization in Black families by documenting specific content socialized, how (implicit or purposive) that content was socialized, and the relation of such family financial socialization experiences with two financial outcomes: (a) financial attitudes and (b) financial well-being. The current study was guided by theories of socialization (Arnett, 1995; Bales & Parsons, 2014; Baltes & Schaie, 2013; Grusec & Hastings, 2014) and the Family Financial Socialization Model (Gudmunson and Danes, 2011), interpreted through the lens of critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). Analysis was conducted using Pearson’s correlations, Independent samples t-tests, and Stepwise Regressions. Results of the study make three main contributions to the literature. First, the current study advances understanding of family financial socialization by documenting socialization experiences among African Americans, a segment of the population that has been overlooked in research on family finance. The contributions of the focus on Black people are accentuated by the use of a culturally sensitive instrument intended to capture potential financial socialization strategies unique to Black people because of their history of oppression and institutional racism. Second, it provides evidence of gender differences in how Black families financially socialize their members. Third, it demonstrates that previously documented (Klontz and Britt, 2011) relationships between financial attitudes and financial well-being among White people does not mirror the same relationship among Black people.