Allocation of Allowances and Associated Family Practices

This study presents information on general family practices of providing family allowances or pocket money to children, parental reasons for the provision of allowances, the parental requirements of children for receipt of allowances, and the frequency of conflicts generated around them. Eighty-one parents of elementary school children in a midwest Canadian city completed questionnaires. The respondents used a Likert scale to indicate the importance of parents' reasons for allowances, requirements for allowance allocation and the frequency of conflict over allowance. The factor analyses of these parental reasons for providing allowances were compared to the factors generated by Feather's Australian investigation (1991). In both countries the factor analyses generated three major factors that included similar items. Parental statements of conflict formed two factors based on parental disagreements and children's comparisons with their friends and other families.