ItemArticle

Financial Socialisation, Decision-Making Power and Risk-Taking Behaviour of Rural Households: Moderating Mediation Analysis

Title
Financial Socialisation, Decision-Making Power and Risk-Taking Behaviour of Rural Households: Moderating Mediation Analysis
Creator
Suresh, Gopal; Munuswamy, Jothi; Malliasamy, Prakash
Description
Financial socialisation (FS) plays a vital role in determining the financial decision-making power and risk-taking behaviour of rural households. The present study investigates the interplay between financial socialisation, gender, and marital status in shaping decision-making power and investment risk-taking behaviour. A quantitative approach was employed, with 312 survey responses collected via a cross-sectional survey method from rural investors in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, India. Financial socialisation was assessed using adapted and validated items from prior studies, while trading frequency was a proxy for risk-taking behaviour. The moderated mediation framework (PROCESS Macro Model 8) was employed to investigate the interplay between the variables. Results show that FS significantly increases womens risk-taking behaviour, but this effect is partly reduced due to their lower decision-making power in rural patriarchal households. For men, the direct effect of financial socialisation on risk-taking behaviour is positive but weaker, with no mediation through decision-making power. Married individuals exhibit more conservative risk-taking behaviour than unmarried individuals due to familial responsibilities. The study also found that education and income do not significantly impact decision-making power, possibly reflecting deeper socio-cultural influences in rural settings. These findings imply that policymakers should design targeted financial literacy programmes to address gender disparities and cultural barriers to financial participation. By promoting inclusive financial socialisation, households can achieve more equitable decision-making processes and risk management, which will improve the financial well-being of rural communities. This study contributes to understanding financial socialisation within patriarchal contexts and offers insights into targeted financial empowerment initiatives. The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Source
SAGE Open;Volume;16;Issue;1;
Date
01-01-2026
Publisher
SAGE Publications Inc.
Subject
decision-making power; financial behaviour; financial socialisation; gender; risk-taking behaviour; rural household finance
Coverage
Suresh G., Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Bengaluru, India; Munuswamy J., Faculty of Management Sciences, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India; Malliasamy P., Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India
Rights
All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access
Relation
ISSN: 21582440;
Format
online
Language
English
Type
Article

Citation

Suresh, Gopal; Munuswamy, Jothi; Malliasamy, Prakash, “Financial Socialisation, Decision-Making Power and Risk-Taking Behaviour of Rural Households: Moderating Mediation Analysis,” CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) Institutional Repository, accessed June 19, 2026, https://archives.christuniversity.in/items/show/23180.

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