Browsing by Author "Huiku, Laura"

Goals. The goal of this Master’s Thesis is to examine how young adults describe their economic capability and their own consumption. In addition, it is explored how and where young adults feel they have learned financial capability. The research is topical because studies have shown that the perception of one's own financial capability is related to financial behavior and well-being. However, it is not entirely clear where and how financial skills, knowledge and attitudes are adopted. Previous research has shown that childhood home, school, peers, and the media are key environments where consumer attitudes and skills are learned. The role of the childhood home is emphasized in the studies of socialization. The school's financial education has been found to teach financial knowledge, but conflicting research results have been obtained on its impact on economic behavior. Peer and media influence consumption, especially in adolescence. The consumer today operates in an increasingly complex market. It is therefore important to find out how consumers themselves perceive financial capability. Methods. This Master’s Thesis was conducted as a qualitative research. The target group of the study was young adults between age 18 and 29. Research data was collected by using a semi-structured interview. Ten interviews were conducted in December 2019 and in January 2020. People participating in this study were between age 21 and 26. Data from the interviews was analyzed by using thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis. ATLAS.ti computer program was used as a help in thematic analysis. Results and conclusion. The study found that young adults feel they are frugal, but not stingy consumers. This can be interpreted as reflecting society's values of consumption. Young adults' descriptions of their own consumption were close to those of an ideal consumer. This may indicate that young adults consider their own financial skills to be good. The childhood home was seen a key environment for learning financial skills. School’s financial education was seen encouraging a frugal attitude towards consumption, but school was not perceived as a significant factor in learning financial capability. On the other hand, young adults believe in the school's po-tential to influence the development of financial capability.