The preoccupation related to children´s economic socialization and the possible influence of the parental practices in this process have been fomenting researches that contribute for the understanding of cultural and social contexts, enlarging the comprehension capacity of the parental behaviors and children development. According to literature, parents are the socialization main agents for children's economic literacy. By means of the practice of giving allowance children’s economic comprehension increase and by means of rewards and sanctions, parents install their own beliefs of economy in
their children. Though this theme is already vastly studied in other countries, in Brazil the
researches are scarce and embrace only the average class, disregarding the great participation of the low class in the economy and in the formation of futures consumers. This study had as objective investigate the beliefs and parents' practices on the allowance. parents of low and average income, with sons between 6 and 16 years old took part on this research. Focal group technique was used, in which four groups participated. The discussions was orientated by a themes guide constituted by relevant literature subjects like the concept and purpose of the allowance. The discussions were recorded, transcribed and submitted to data analysis in an analysis computer program of textual data, Alceste, version 4.5, created by Marx Reinert. The results pointed 5 classes that were organized in three thematic axises. In the classes associated with the allowance utilization process,
parents’ seeking to justify the allowance use as educational strategy, sometimes serving as
reward instrument, sometimes as instrument of creating bad habits. It was identified that
besides the educational function the allowance has a socialization function, for integration
and social status. The contents of the theme “family history concerning the budget”
showed parents' very distinct reports, in which sometimes they remit to a family history,
mostly to one of their parents, sometimes talking about the negotiation process, in the conjugal relation, of the budget and of the expenses. The parents argued subjects related to who should control the house finance (man or woman) and also if children needed to know how the family budget is like. In the third axis the existence of some factors related for Allowance definition components, like frequency and regularity, value and need to children was verified. The answers also involved the amount of money that should be
given to the children and the reason for parents to stop giving allowance to their children.
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