What Influences Young Adults to Become Financially Literate : An Explorative Study On Swedish Young Adults’ Attitudes Towards Money

Abstract: The low financial literacy among young adults affects individuals’ financial decisions, which impact their well-being and societal welfare. To understand what influences young adults’ financial decisions, it is essential to develop knowledge in elements that give existence to financial literacy. Known factors which influence financial literacy are attitudes about money and socialization sources. The purpose of this thesis is to explore socialization sources’ influence on attitudes towards money and in which way attitudes about money influence young adults’ financial literacy. A theoretical framework regarding these constructs was developed. Based on the Money Attitude Scale (MAS) and socialization source theories, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted, which were thematically analyzed by developing codes and themes connected to the research questions. The findings from the collected data indicate that young adults are influenced in childhood by how they were raised, their environmental values, and the society and its values that they were brought up in. Findings also indicate that young adults are influenced by trends, media, friends, and their own experiences later in life. The collected data also showed that young adults become more financially literate because of their distrust of banks, the desire to be successful and the best version of themselves, and fear of ending up in challenging financial situations. Some findings pointed to why young adults had low financial literacy, which was connected to fear of being judged, low interest in the subject and still being financially dependent on their parents. This study suggests that policymakers need to develop financial education programs that are directed to socialization sources that influence young adults’ attitudes towards money. Policymakers should also develop trends that actively influence young adults to become more financially literate.