Family financial socialization, financial information seeking behavior and financial literacy among youth Saeed Pahlevan Sharif and Navaz Naghavi Taylor’s Business School, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia Abstract Purpose – This study examined the relationship between financial information seeking behavior and financial literacy, as well as the relationship between parents’ teaching and behavior with financial information seeking behavior through the factors of the risk information seeking and processing model among youth. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 802 tertiary education students participated in this cross- sectional study. Using covariance-based structural equation modeling, the model was assessed and hypotheses were tested. Findings – The results revealed that financial information seeking behavior contributed to youth’s financial literacy. While parents’ sound financial behavior was directly related to seeking financial information, both parents’ financial teaching and behavior indirectly, through the risk information seeking process, encouraged youth to actively seek for financial information. Moreover, parents’ financial socialization directly and also indirectly through the risk information seeking and processing model explained youth’s financial information avoidance. Among the two parts of the risk information seeking and processing model, planned behavior factors played a more salient role than cognitive need for financial information. Originality/value – This study extends the risk information seeking and processing model by integrating family financial socialization to the model and applies it in the context of consumers’ financial behavior. The results improve our understanding of the social and psychological mechanism that drives consumers’ financial literacy and decision-making. Keywords Financial literacy, Financial information seeking, Parents, Consumer’s financial behavior, Youth, RISP Paper type Research paper Introduction An increasingly financialized world has raised the importance of consumers’ financial literacy in recent decades. The rapid development of financial products and services requires consumers to make more complex financial decisions than ever before (Bannier and Schwarz, 2018). This has attracted researchers’ and policymakers’ interest in improving people’s financial literacy aiming to change their undesirable financial habits and form positive financial behaviors (Oecd, 2005, Xu and Zia, 2012; FINRA Foundation, 2013; Tang and Baker, 2016). Knowledge of personal financing and more importantly financial literacy is particularly important among today’s adolescents and youth as they are more exposed to financial decision-making than their parents (Aprea et al., 2016). A low level of financial literacy with the mentality of “own now, pay later” and the relative ease of access to credit cards may carry them into indebtedness and hinder them from financial planning for a secure future (Pahlevansharif and Yeoh, 2018; Lusardi et al., 2009). Moreover, their financial behavior during this period of time would probably persist into adult life. This is because, most of the youth, at this stage of life actively learn and build the skills that they need to be financially independent (Shim et al., 2010). Recent research has highlighted the importance of family as the primary socialization agent for learning finance especially among youth (Gudmunson and Danes, 2011). In Family financial socialization and financial literacy 163 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1757-4323.htm Received 25 September 2019 Revised 22 December 2019 Accepted 8 March 2020 Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration Vol. 12 No. 2, 2020 pp. 163-181 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1757-4323 DOI 10.1108/APJBA-09-2019-0196