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Do Parents and Peers Influence Adolescents’ Monetary Intelligence and Consumer Ethics? French and Chinese Adolescents and Behavioral Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Elodie Gentina

    (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Thomas Li-Ping Tang
  • Qinxuan Gu

Abstract

Adolescents have increasing discretionary income, expenditures, and purchasing power. Inventory shrinkage costs $123.4 billion globally to retail outlets. Adolescents are disproportionately responsible for theft and shoplifting. Both parents and peers significantly influence adolescents' monetary values, materialism, and dishonesty as consumers. In this study, we develop a theoretical model involving teenagers' social (parental and peer) attachment and their consumer ethics, treat adolescents' money attitude in the context of youth materialism as a mediator, and simultaneously examine the direct (Social Attachment → Consumer Ethics) and indirect paths (Social Attachment → Money and Materialism → Consumer Ethics). Results of 1018 adolescents (France = 534 and China = 484; average age = 15.21) illustrate that social attachment discourages unethical beliefs directly, but encourages it indirectly through monetary values. Our multi-group analyses demonstrate a novel paradox: The correlation between parental and peer attachments is smaller in France than in China, but similar across gender. Parents contribute more than peers to social attachment in France, but both carry equal weight in China. There is a negative direct path for the Chinese sample and for girls. Indirectly, parental attachment prevents French teenagers' unethical beliefs, whereas peer attachment promotes boys' unethical intention, supporting the notion—bad company corrupts good morals. Across both culture and gender, monetary attitude excites dishonesty consistently for all adolescents. A negative direct path exists for Chinese boys only (the Pygmalion Effect for male little emperors). Overall, social attachment reduces unethical beliefs. Parental and peer supports shape teenagers' monetary intelligence and ethical or unethical decision making, differently, across culture and gender. We provide theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to ethical parenting, peer attachment, monetary values, and business ethics.

Suggested Citation

  • Elodie Gentina & Thomas Li-Ping Tang & Qinxuan Gu, 2018. "Do Parents and Peers Influence Adolescents’ Monetary Intelligence and Consumer Ethics? French and Chinese Adolescents and Behavioral Economics," Post-Print hal-01914761, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01914761
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3206-7
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    Cited by:

    1. Elodie Gentina & Carole Daniel & Thomas Li-Ping Tang, 2021. "Mindfulness Reduces Avaricious Monetary Attitudes and Enhances Ethical Consumer Beliefs: Mindfulness Training, Timing, and Practicing Matter," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 301-323, October.
    2. Yanping Gong & Jian Li & Julan Xie & Long Zhang & Qiuyin Lou, 2022. "Will “Green” Parents Have “Green” Children? The Relationship Between Parents’ and Early Adolescents’ Green Consumption Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 369-385, August.
    3. Weilong Chen & Yi Huang & Abanoub Riad, 2021. "Gender Differences in Depressive Traits among Rural and Urban Chinese Adolescent Students: Secondary Data Analysis of Nationwide Survey CFPS," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-11, August.
    4. Khanh Duy Pham & Vu Linh Toan Le, 2023. "Nexus between Financial Education, Literacy, and Financial Behavior: Insights from Vietnamese Young Generations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Gentina, Elodie & Chen, Rui & Yang, Zhiyong, 2021. "Development of theory of mind on online social networks: Evidence from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 652-666.

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