The influence of informal learning opportunities on adolescents’ financial literacy

In today’s service society, adolescents come into contact with money and financial products and services earlier and earlier. Despite the importance of the topic in the adolescents’ lives, there is insufficient evidence on the learning opportunities adolescents use outside of school and education to obtain information on financial issues and how these affect their financial competence. This paper investigates how different informal learning opportunities influence grade 10-students’ financial literacy. Data are available for N = 530 students in general education. The analyses are based on a structural equation model in which financial literacy is represented as a latent variable with the sub-dimensions of money/payments, savings, loans, insurance, and monetary policy. Young people use different learning opportunities depending on the sub-dimension. Overall, parent-student discussions on finance are the most important informal source of learning. Discussions with siblings as well as consulting sessions with banks and media learning opportunities are also significantly related to financial literacy. Furthermore, personal characteristics, such as socio-economic background and economic interest, are also associated with financial literacy. The findings provide important implications for the promotion of financial literacy in different formal and informal learning situations. The results can be used, among other things, as a basis for developing targeted strategies to promote financial literacy in both the extracurricular sector and the school context.