Discriminating between primary family financial managers and the other adult in the family: A gender perspective.

Abstract

This study used a gender perspective to examine the intergender differences between male and female primary family financial managers and the intragender differences among females and among males of the primary family financial manager and the other adult in the family. The results of this study showed that researchers need to examine the differences of males and females in general when examining the differences between male and female primary family financial managers. Of the 20 variables employed in the discriminant analyses in this study, only the money attitude of power/spending differentiated between male and female primary family financial managers and not between males and females in general. However, the money attitude of power/spending did not differentiate among females or among males between the primary family financial manager and the other adult in the family. None of the paths to primary family financial manager in the structural equations model were significant. These results suggest there is need for further research to determine the intergender differences between male and female primary family financial managers and the intragender differences between the primary family financial manager and the other adult in the family. This study was a secondary analysis of data from Arizona and California collected as part of the NC-182 project, Family Resource Utilization as a Factor in Determining the Economic Well-Being in Rural Families. To be selected for the sample the couple had to be married so that there was a choice of a male or female as primary family financial manager. The sample consisted of 210 male primary family financial managers, 185 female primary family financial managers, 123 male other adults and 123 female other adults.