Investigating the Generality of Family Economic Management Methods in Mashhad and its Effective Factors

An individual grows up in a family and becomes sociable in terms of behavior and economic action. It means that the person adopts the same style as his or her parents in the family. If the consumption pattern of the family is incorrect, the same method is reproduced and passed on to the next generations. The consumption pattern in the society is greatly influenced by the consumption pattern in the family. In other words, in addition to government policies and the economic structure of the society, families also play an important role in maintaining an inappropriate consumption pattern in the society, so proper economic management in the family can improve the consumption pattern at the family level (Asghari, 2014) and then at the community level. Therefore, the main question of the present study is: How common are each of the economic management styles among Mashhad families, and what factors could affect it?

The survey method was used in this study. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. The statistical population of the present study was all of the head households who lived in Mashhad in 2019. In this study, the sample size was estimated by Cochran's formula and finally based on which 369 people were selected.

Research findings showed that 54 percent of cases have adopted the rational style in household economic management. The variables of the type of family relationship, education level, economic status, cultural status, social status, and social class had a positive and significant relationship with family economic management style. The results also showed that with the more democratic relations of members within the family and the increase in the education of the head of the family, the management becomes more rational. Also, the results also showed that families with better social, economic,  cultural and social status had a more rational economic management style. Understanding within the family and joint consultation and decision-making provided a good opportunity for a family that had democratic relations leading to selecting more appropriate strategies for the family economic management. Families with more economic, social, and cultural status and, in Bourdieu’s terms, more social, economic, and cultural capital do certainly better in managing the family's economic affairs.Another important finding of this study was that families who were at the beginning of cohabitation had more rational management than families who were in the middle or end of their family life. According to the findings, young couples were more concerned with the future and were more forward-looking instead of desirable-looking. Certainly, the upbringing of children and their marriage, and at the same time the rising age of the family could bring about some changes in the economic management style of families, as at this stage families prefer to live in the present because with the addition of new plans and the entry of new people into the family, costs increase and the family can pay less attention to satisfaction. It is important to note that in Mashhad families, while democratic relations in the family had the highest average, technical and economic skills had the lowest average. The families had low financial or economic technical skills. This finding is somewhat consistent with a similar study in Tehran conducted by Dianti Dilami and Hanifezadeh on the level of financial literacy of Tehran families (Dianati Dilami & Hanifezadeh, 2015).Finally, based on the results of path analysis, the most important variable is the number of household income sources, which is inversely related to the type of family economy management. This means more than one source of income in the family could lead the family management tend to have irrational styles. Therefore, resource mobilization without creating multi-governing relationships in the family can have an important effect on reforming the management model in families and increase the level of satisfaction in the family. This could be due to poor decision-making and empathetic participation in some families in coordinating the various financial resources that enter the family.