Children’s saving: A review and proposed ecological framework

Saving, defined as reserving current resources for future use, is a valuable future-oriented skill that allows individuals to meet their future goals (e.g., retire, go on vacation) without experiencing resource scarcity, disappointment, or distress. To date, saving has been examined extensively in adults, but to a lesser extent in childhood. Over the past decade, a small but growing body of research has focused on the early development of saving and has shown that children as young as age 3 can save for the future. In this paper, we review the literature on individual differences in children’s saving in relation to cognitive abilities, personality traits, and social environments (e.g., home environment and societal factors). Then, we propose an ecological framework of saving as a theoretical ground to examine children’s ability to save and to conceptualize how various factors, and their interactions, shape the development of saving and lead to (mal)adaptive saving habits. We conclude by suggesting important future directions for research that would further test this ecological framework.