Financial Disagreements in Russian Families: Typology and Determinants

In Western literature financial conflicts are identified as the main predictor of divorce in families and are defined as the most difficult and prolonged type of disagreements for the spouses. However, the question of what are the determinants of their occurrence remains unanswered in a huge body of research devoted to marital conflicts or financial management. This study presents an attempt to fill this gap and answer the questions about how to classify financial disagreements in families and which family characteristics can lead to their emergence. The results show that financial disagreements, basically, seem to the spouses to be a normal phenomenon in the life of the family and are solved with the help of a compromise, a "win / lose" strategy or through avoiding the problem. Five types of financial disagreements were identified by their reasons: price conflicts, conflicts about necessity, conflict of goals, conflicts due to ill-consideration and conflicts of values. In families that showed the coincident view to the frequency of financial disagreements, the main determinants of frequent disagreements over money are the combination of cohabitation (unregistered relations) and independent financial management, the intersection of a non-thrifty husband and an unprofitable wife in one family, the lack of traditionalist attitudes and man's great satisfaction with the adoption of financial decisions in comparison with a woman. To the reduction of the frequency of financial disagreements lead a large family experience, a pooling system and the absence of children under the age of 18 years. For spouses with different assessment of the financial disagreements frequency work such characteristics of the family as nationality (for Russians the probability of falling into the category of frequent financial disagreements is higher than that of all other nationalities), greater satisfaction with the adoption of financial decisions for a husband compared with a wife.