The role of parental financial self-efficacy and child's gender in parental financial socialization intentions

Family financial socialization plays a central role in shaping children's financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Although prior research has extensively documented the importance of parental communication and modeling, the psychological mechanisms motivating parents to intentionally engage in financial education remain insufficiently explored. This study examines the role of Parental Financial Education Self-Efficacy (PFE- SE), defined as parents' perceived capability to convey economic and financial knowledge to their children, as a key antecedent of educational intentions. Data were collected through an online survey administered to 500 Italian parents of children aged 6 to 14 years. Measures included PFE-SE, parents' educational intentions, parental beliefs about children's financial competence, self-evaluated financial skills, confidence in financial technologies, and financial literacy level. Structural Equation Modeling was employed to test a mediation model, and multigroup analyses were conducted to examine differences by gender. Results indicated that PFE-SE was the strongest and only direct predictor of parents' educational intentions. Financial literacy and parental beliefs about children's competence were associated with educational intentions exclusively through their positive effects on PFE-SE. Moreover, multigroup analyses revealed that while PFE-SE predicted educational intentions for both sons and daughters, parental beliefs about the child's competence exerted an additional direct effect only for daughters. These findings underscore the central role of PFE-SE in financial education and suggest that gendered expectations may influence family financial socialization processes. Interventions aimed at supporting parents as financial educators should therefore prioritize strengthening educational self-efficacy alongside financial knowledge, with particular attention to reducing gender-based disparities.