We also explore the potential contribution a ‘pocket money culture’ makes to today’s societal problems – obesity-pandemic, addiction-culture and materialism.Most of us remember the excitement of receiving pocket money as a child – the sound it made as it dropped through the slot into your moneybox, and then the thrill of deciding how to spend it. Our objective was to investigate the practices of a cohort of modern-day parents in Ireland regarding the administration of pocket-money to their children in terms of ethos, amount, frequency and supervision. There is a dearth of information available worldwide in either the medical literature or contemporary media on the amount children receive as pocket-money, how they spend it, how they should spend it and the consequences of the above. 1įrom a paediatric-research viewpoint, pocket-money is considered a minor variable to be assessed when examining the broader picture of children’s negative health habits. Previous research has found that pocket-money is a simple way of preparing children for the future and creating more financially literate adults.

Much of the available published research focuses on the philosophical and sociological impact of pocket-money on the child’s autonomy and on the dialogue between the parents’ value systems or work ethic and how they confer this on their children.

Background and aims Pocket-money is generally accepted to be a means for parents to introduce concepts of self-management, saving, budgeting and responsibility for their children.

Pocket with money