Preschoolers' Saving Performance: The Role of Budgeting and Psychological Distance

The current study explored how creating a budget for oneself versus another might improve preschoolers' saving performance. Children were given tokens to purchase later available more-preferred prizes instead of spending them on immediately available less-preferred prizes. N=75 three- to five-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Baseline, Budgeting-Self, or Budgeting-Other. Children completed a general planning task, a Theory of Mind Scale, and a general language ability measure. Children saved significantly more tokens in the Budgeting-Other condition compared to Baseline, p = .001. More children were Savers (saved at least one token) in the budgeting conditions compared to Baseline, p =.001; however, the proportion of savers did not differ between budgeting conditions. Children who were Planners (budgeted at least one token) were more likely to be Savers, p =.009. The other cognitive measures were not significant predictors of saving.