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EMAC 2024 Annual


Making Money Rewarding - Conditional versus Unconditional Pocket Money and Children’s Materialism
(A2024-119589)

Published: May 28, 2024

AUTHORS

Ravneet Bawa, London School of Economics and Political Science; Heather Kappes, London School of Economics and Political Science

ABSTRACT

Often children receive money from their family either as an unconditional recurring allowance or conditionally i.e. contingent on completion of chores or for personal accomplishments. We propose that making money conditional during childhood, as compared to unconditional allowances, contributes to increased materialism in children.. Two large-scale survey studies (n=5065) with a population-representative sample of UK parents, and children aged 7-17 years support this hypothesis. A third online study (n=162) triangulates the causal evidence, by showing that (a) parents’ materialism is unrelated to their approach to pocket money, and (b) children’s materialism does not appear to influence parents’ approach. These findings support the conclusion that parental practices around pocket money can contribute to children’s materialism.