Financial Literacy Mediating Experience, Socialization, and Financial Behavior among Young Couples: A Conceptual Review

Dita Prameswari; Zaenul Wafa

doi:10.32535/ijafap.v9i1.4810

Financial Literacy Mediating Experience, Socialization, and Financial Behavior among Young Couples: A Conceptual Review

Dita Prameswari, Zaenul Wafa

Abstract

This conceptual review develops an integrated explanation of how financial experience and financial socialization shape financial management behavior among young couples through financial literacy. The review responds to inconsistent evidence on whether financial literacy directly translates into prudent behavior and to the limited treatment of marriage as a new financial socialization setting. A structured integrative review was conducted using 30 traceable peer-reviewed sources published between 2011 and 2026, with priority given to accredited journal articles from 2021-2026. The synthesis identifies four recurring themes: experiential learning is most effective when it involves consequential decisions; financial socialization is multi-agent and continues beyond childhood; literacy is a partial rather than sufficient mechanism; and spousal financial communication can strengthen or weaken the conversion of literacy into behavior. The resulting framework proposes direct, mediated, and moderated relationships among financial experience, financial socialization, financial literacy, spousal financial communication, and financial management behavior. The model contributes by repositioning young couples as a dyadic and transitional unit of analysis and by separating knowledge acquisition from knowledge enactment. Future empirical studies should test the framework with dyadic samples, objective and subjective literacy measures, and structural equation or actor partner models.

Keywords

financial experience; financial literacy; financial management behavior; financial socialization; spousal communication; young couples

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.32535/ijafap.v9i1.4810