ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY AMONG YOUNG ADULTS VERSUS POSITIVE ORIENTATION AND SELF-ESTEEM

These studies investigate a relationship between positive orientation, self-esteem, and attitudes towards money in young adults. The Covid-19 pandemic has left a significant mark on the lives of many people and young adults are particularly at risk because they do not have a stable position in the labour market. The group of respondents was manually restricted to young adults, so analyses were conducted on a group of 296 people. Responses were collected online, through the Cognito Forms. Tools were used in the research: the author’s sociodemographic questionnaire, the P Scale to measure the intensity of positive orientation, the Morris Rosenberg SES Self-Esteem Scale to measure self-esteem, and SPP-25 to measure attitudes towards money.


Introduction
Numerous studies prove that money, possession of property, and possibility of multiplying it, have a significant impact on social existence or decisions made in life. At the same time, people differ in their attitude to money, and these differences are particularly important due to social inequalities and the spectre of the economic crisis caused, among others, by the Covid-19 pandemic. This framework is an attempt to answer the question of whether there is a relation and what kind of relation between the attitude towards money among young adults and positive orientation and self-esteem. Young adults are a group that, due to their age, has less professional experience, which makes it particularly prone to economic problems during the crisis.
First part of the work contains, inter alia, definition and correlates of positive orientation, sources and types of self-esteem, its impact on behavior of an individual, the role and importance of money from an economic and psychological perspective, and an analysis of various theories related to attitudes towards money. Empirical part includes a description of the methodology of own research, among others presentation of questions, hypotheses and research tools as well as a description of the method of conducting research and the group of respondents.
The research problem was formulated through research questions. Based on the literature review, two main hypotheses were formulated assuming relationship between attitudes towards money and self-esteem and positive orientation. In addition, 9 detailed hypotheses were put forward regarding the correlation of individual dimensions of attitudes towards money and positive orientation and self-esteem. The study uses the P-scale to measure intensity of positive orientation, Rosenberg's SES Self-Esteem Scale to measure self-esteem and the abbreviated Attitude Toward Money Scale (SPP-25) to measure attitudes towards money.
The research was conducted online via the Cognito Forms tool. 305 people aged 17 to 55 participated in the study, while young adults were the subject of work, therefore statistical analyzes were carried out on a group of 296 people aged 18 to 35 years.

Positive orientation and self-esteem in scientific research
Positive orientation is a contemporary concept developed by the Italian psychologist G. V. Caprara (Sobol-Kwapińska, 2014, pp. 77-90). The concept quickly gained interest of researchers, which is related to the growing interest in positive psychology in recent decades (Seligman and M. Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, pp. 5-14). Positive orientation can be defined as a primary way an individual perceives, evaluates and constructs experiences. This is a basic disposition that underlies self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and optimism. It is characterized by a positive attitude towards oneself, life and the future (Caprara et al., 2012, pp. 77-83). Results on the positive orientation scale make it possible to forecast behaviors related to, inter alia, with depression, emotionality, quality of health and even the quality of friendship. It is related to how personal experiences are interpreted, what is the attitude to life difficulties and to what extent a person uses his potential (Caprara, 2009, pp. 46-48). Also noteworthy are the four-year longitudinal studies conducted by Alessandri, Caprara and Tisak (2014, pp. 77-90).
For a long time, three scales have been used to measure positive orientation: self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction. The disadvantage of this method was a need to fill in several questionnaires by respondents. As a consequence, a new, shorter questionnaire was developed -the Positivity Scale, abbreviated as P-Scale (the Polish name is Skala P) (Łaguna, Oleś, & Filipiuk, 2011, pp. 47-54). Despite departing from the complicated measurement procedure, scientific research focuses on searching for relationships between these variables, especially in the field of verifying the relationships between positive orientation and an individual's self-esteem.
Self-esteem was defined by W. James as the relation of our current situation to our achievements, possibilities and aspirations (Domurat, 2012, pp. 223-231). In the works of W. James (1890), the level of self-esteem is determined by dependence of expectations and achievements of a given person. Self-esteem is also defined as a difference between the real self and the ideal self. The greater the disproportion between two self-images, the lower the self-esteem, which results in negative emotions of the individual. On the other hand, a low discrepancy is associated with high self-esteem (Higgins, 1987, pp. 319-340). In turn, Wojciszke (2002) describes it as an affective reaction of a person to himself. Szpitalak and Polczyk (2015) point out that in psychology, researchers have long distinguished implicit, explicit and global self-esteem, as well as specific self-esteem (Greenwald et al., 2002, pp. 3-25). According to Wojciszke (2002), self-esteem can be characterized by its height, stability and clarity. The level of self-esteem is the most frequently studied (Kernis et al., 2015). The stability of self-esteem determines changes in the amount of self-esteem over time. High self-esteem affects, among others greater persistence in the face of failure and stress, it is associated with higher initiative, correlates with a greater sense of happiness. At the same time, high self-esteem also entails negative consequences, e.g. greater propensity to take risks.
Results of the research indicate that high self-esteem is associated, among others, with mental well-being, happiness, satisfaction and even faster recovery from serious illnesses. In turn, low self-esteem favors, among others anxiety, eating disorders, behavioral problems and inappropriate social behavior. For example, Trzesniewski and his team (2006, pp. 381-390) showed that lower self-esteem of young people translates into economic problems in adult life, including lower income and higher risk of unemployment. On the other hand, Lachowicz-Tabaczek and Śniecińska (2008, pp. 229-246) indicate that self-assessment adjusted to the possibilities allows to assess whether a given action is within the reach of an individual. Thus, increasing self-esteem plays an important role in increasing the quality of life (Mann et al., 2004, pp. 357-372).
Results of the studies by Caprara et al. (2010, pp. 63-71) showed that positive orientation is a variable that underlies self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism. P. Oleś et al. studied the relationship of self-efficacy, self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism with a positive orientation. The results showed that the sense of self-efficacy is strongly correlated with positive orientation, at the same time it is not a part of it (Oleś et al., 2013, pp. 47-60). Positive orientation is the opposite of the depressive triad and negatively correlates with the sense of hopelessness (Łaguna, Oleś, & Filipiuk, 2011, pp. 47-54). Other studies (Miciuk et al., 2016, pp. 141-148) have shown a moderate correlation of positive orientation with a generalized sense of self-efficacy, positive affect, and a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Economic and psychological importance of money -concepts review
One of the simpler definitions of money is what is given or received in transactions such as buying or selling goods or services (Galbraight, 1982). Money has various functions in the modern world. It is, among others a medium of exchange, a measure of the value of goods, and is used to store value. It functions as a liquid asset that can be exchanged for other goods at any time (Samuelson & Nordhaous, 2004).
Money has taken various forms throughout history. One of its first forms was barter, that is, the exchange of one goods for other goods. Commodity money was another medium of exchange. The means of payment were goods commonly valued in a given culture, such as wine, silver, olive oil, copper, silver, gold or even cattle. Over time, commodity money was limited to only precious metals such as silver and gold.
Nowadays, two main forms of money can be distinguished -cash in the form of banknotes and coins and non-cash (electronic). The form of money affects people's attitudes towards spending in many ways. When paying by card, people tend to spend more than when paying in cash (Feinberg, 1986, pp. 348-356). Card payments increase the value of purchased goods and consumption of unhealthy food (Thomas, Desai, & Seenivasan, 2011, pp. 126-139). Credit cards increase the likelihood -compared to paying by checks -of later purchasing discretionary goods i.e. goods that are desirable but not essential (Soman, 2001, pp. 460-474). Moreover, there are individual differences in attitudes towards money. For some people, wealth is a priority. For them, money is a status indicator, while others believe that money is a source of all evil in the world (Tyszka, 2004).
In recent years, the interest of economists and psychologists in the attitude towards money has increased. The reason for this is growing awareness of importance of individual preferences related to functions and significance of money in various spheres of life (Gąsiorowska, 2008), such as entrepreneurial attitudes (Łaguna, 2007, pp. 135-150), assessment of one's financial situation (Gąsiorowska, 2010 , pp. 177-193), civic attitudes during a crisis (Soo Hoon, Lim, 2001, pp. 159-173) or employee motivation (Campos Monteiro et al., 2015, pp. 11-30).
The theory that shows complex (dual) relationship of people to money is the Theory of Lea and Webley (2005, pp. 161-176). Money can be treated as a tool to achieve goals and as a drug (money as a tool, money as a drug). The authors argue that money can be seen by people as means to buy other things, services (as a tool), and as a goal of itself (as a drug). Money is attractive to people because it can be exchanged for other goods and services easily. The second part of Lea and Webley's theory is the drug theory. In this sense, a drug can be defined as any factor that has motivational properties because it acts on a neuronal, behavioral or psychological level, like stimuli of biological significance. The theory of money as a drug says that money is a strong motivator in itself, but at the same time lacks functionality.
On the other hand, Goldberg and Lewis (1978) note that people's attitude to money is not uniform. Some people treat them as a source of security, others as the cause of problems and troubles. In their work, they distinguish four main types of attitudes towards money: security collectors, power grabbers, love dealers, autonomy worshipers. Another classification of attitudes towards money is proposed by Tang and his teams of researchers (Luna-Arocas, Tang & Thomas 2004, pp. 329-354;Tang et al., 2004, pp. 542-548;Tang, Tang & Luna-Arocas, 2005, pp. 603-618). Researchers used the Love of Money Scale (LOMS) and developed four profiles of attitudes towards money: successful money worshipers, careless money admirers, apathetic money managers and money repellent individuals. Contrary to the typology of Goldman and Lewis, the profiles of Tango and colleagues are supported by research, among others on students in the USA, professors in the USA and Spain, students and small business owners in Macedonia. In Poland, the subject of attitudes towards money is present, among others in the research by A. Gąsiorowska (2013a). She is the author of two questionnaires -the Attitudes Towards Money Scale (SPP) and the abbreviated version of the Attitudes Towards Money Scale (SPP-25) (2013b). Shortened questionnaire The Attitudes Towards Money Scale allows you to measure 6 dimensions of attitudes towards money.

Research methodology
To analyze presented research problems, the P-Scale to measure intensity of positive orientation, the SES Self-Assessment Scale by M. Rosenberg and the abbreviated version of the Attitude Towards Money Scale (SPP-25) by A. Gąsiorowska have been used. The P-scale is a questionnaire designed to measure intensity of positive orientation without a need to use other research tools and calculate the factor score. It consists of 8 statements of a diagnostic nature. The answers are given on a five-point scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree with a specific sentence. The questionnaire contains one inverted statement. The result is a sum of points, the respondent can score maximum 40 points. The higher the sum, the greater the intensity of positive orientation. In studies conducted in Poland, in 2011, on a group of 905 people aged 14 to 50 years, Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.77 to 0.84 depending on the group studied. The highest value (0.84) was achieved by the group of adults aged 24 to 50, while in the group of pupils and students this ratio was the same, 0.77 (Łaguna, Oles, & Filipiuk, 2011). On the other hand, in the conducted research, the Cronbach's alpha reliability index is 0.86. The author of the SES self-assessment scale used to measure global self-esteem is M. Rosenberg (1954). It has been translated into 28 languages and is used in at least 53 countries. It contains 10 items, and the answers are given on a four-point scale (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). The results range from 10 to 40 points. The higher the score, the higher the level of self-esteem. In Poland, the adaptation of the tool was developed in 2007 by three researchers: I. Dzwonkowska, M. Laguna and K. Lachowicz-Tabaczek (2007). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged from 0.81 to 0.83 depending on the study group. In the author's own research, the Cronbach's alpha index is 0.88.
SPP-25 is a shortened version of the Polish SPP tool, which is used to assess cognitive, behavioral and emotional attitudes towards money. The abbreviated version of the scale allows to effectively measure attitudes towards money, and due to the removal of many items, it is less susceptible to measurement distortions than the full version of the scale. The SPP-25 scale consists of 25 items. Answers are given on a five-point scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). The SPP-25 questionnaire measures the symbolic and instrumental attitude, it consists of 6 scales in which the following results can be achieved: Financial control (6-30 points), Aversion to liabilities (4-20 points), Catching opportunities ( Additionally, the author of questionnaire distinguishes two overarching dimensions of attitudes towards money: symbolic dimension and the instrumental dimension, which arise through grouping of original dimensions (Gąsiorowska, 2014). The symbolic dimension is described by three scales: power resulting from money, financial anxiety, and the source of evil. On the other hand, the other three scales, i.e. financial control, aversion to libilities and catching opportunities, describe the instrumental dimension. In the conducted research, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the symbolic dimension is 0.71 and for the instrumental dimension is 0.79.

The aim and problem of the research as well as presented hypotheses
The aim of the research is to check if there is a correlation between positive orientation and self-esteem and attitude towards money among young adults. Based on the literature review, the following hypotheses were made: H1. There is a correlation between the intensity of positive orientation and the attitude towards money.
H1.1. People with a low level of positive orientation are characterized by a high level of symbolic attitudes towards money.
H1.2. People with a high level of positive orientation are characterized by a high level of instrumental attitudes towards money.
H1.3. The higher the severity of positive orientation, the lower the level of financial anxiety.
H1.4. The intensity of positive orientation negatively correlates with the results on the power resulting from money scale. H1.5. A high level of positive orientation correlates with low scores on the money as a source of evil scale.

H2. There is a relationship between self-esteem and attitudes towards money.
H2.1 People with low self-esteem are characterized by a high level of symbolic attitudes towards money.
H.2.2. The level of self-esteem is positively correlated with the level of instrumental attitudes towards money. H2.3. High self-esteem is associated with a high level of financial control. H2.4. Low self-esteem is associated with high scores on the power of money scale.

Characteristics of the study group and the method of conducting the research
The research was conducted using an online questionnaire made in the Cognito Forms program. Participation in the study was voluntary, anonymous and each participant could resign at any time. All respondents have been informed about these facts. Responses were collected from May to October 2021. During this period, 305 people aged 17-55 participated in the study. The assumption of the study was to conduct research on a group of young adults, i.e. people aged 18 to 35. This age range was adopted on the assumption that early adulthood begins between 18 and 20 and ends between 30 and 35 years of age (Brzeińska, Appelt & Ziółkowska, 2008, pp. 95-292). The results of older and younger people that did not meet this criterion were removed from the data pool. The final group size was N = 296 people aged 18 to 35 years. There were N = 150 women and N = 146 men in the analyzed group. The average age of the respondents was M = 24.12 (SD = 3.09). The largest group of respondents, both among women and men, were people aged 24. Among women, people aged 18-25 accounted for 80%, while for men this share was 75%.
In the studied group, N = 161, i.e. 54.4% of the respondents assessed their financial situation positively, N = 19, i.e. 6.4% assessed their financial situation negatively. On the other hand, N = 116 respondents described their financial situation as average.

Analysis and interpretation of own research results
This part presents statistical analyzes using the IPB SPSS Statistics 25 software, the purpose of which is to answer research questions and verify hypotheses. The program was used to analyze basic descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnow distribution normality test, correlation analysis with Pearson's r coefficient, Student's t-tests for independent samples and correlation analysis with Spearman's rho coefficient. The level of significance in this chapter was considered to be α = 0.05.
In order to check whether the assumption about consistency of distributions of measured quantitative variables with normal distribution has been met, the basic descriptive statistics were analyzed together with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.  The test result turned out to be statistically significant for almost all variables. This means that their distribution differs statistically significantly from the normal distribution curve. However, the value of skewness for all variables does not exceed the implicit absolute value of 1, which means that these distributions are not grossly asymmetric with respect to the normal curve, even if the result of the test of normality of distribution is statistically significant (George, Mallery, 2020). Therefore, if the other assumptions were met, parametric tests were performed. Basic descriptive statistics together with the results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test are presented in Table 1.

Attitude towards money and positive orientation
As part of the first research question, it has been decided to verify whether the level of intensity of positive orientation among respondents is related to their attitude towards money. For this purpose, the analysis of correlation with the Pearson r coefficient was used. The results are presented in Table 2. The study showed a statistically significant negative relationship between positive orientation and financial anxiety and the symbolic dimension, which means that the lower the level of positive orientation the respondents show, the higher their score on the aforementioned scales of the RMS-25 tool. Moreover, a statistically significant positive relationship was demonstrated in the case of financial control, catching opportunities and the instrumental dimension. The positive nature of relationship means that the higher the intensity of positive orientation among respondents, the higher the level of financial control, catching opportunities and the instrumental dimension they show. The correlation coefficient indicates relationships of low and moderate strength. In the case of the remaining variables, the result was statistically insignificant.

Self-esteem and attitude towards money
Then, it was examined whether the level of respondents' self-esteem is related to their attitude towards money. In order to check the relationship, the correlation analysis with Pearson's r coefficient was performed again. The results have been presented in details in Table 3.
The test result turned out to be statistically significant in the case of financial anxiety and the symbolic dimension (moderately strong negative relationships) as well as financial control, opportunity-grabbing and the instrumental dimension (weak positive relationships). In the case of remaining variables, the result was statistically insignificant.

Discussion on the results of own research
The first research question concerned the relationship between positive orientation and attitudes towards money. The first hypothesis that there is a relationship between positive orientation and attitudes towards money has been confirmed. There is a relationship between two first-order factors (financial control and financial anxiety) and the intensity of positive orientation, and between both second-order factors and the level of positive orientation.
The analysis of data presented in Table 2 shows a weak negative correlation of the symbolic dimension of attitudes towards money with a positive orientation and a weak positive correlation of the instrumental dimension of attitudes towards money with a positive orientation, which confirms the detailed hypotheses 1.2 and 1.3. Additionally, it turns out that there is a moderate correlation between financial anxiety and positive orientation -the higher the intensity of positive orientation, the lower the perceived financial anxiety. This confirms the specific hypothesis 1.4. The obtained results are confirmed in the research conducted by A. Gąsiorowska and A. Czerw on the relationship between attitudes towards money and optimism measured by the OPEB optimism scale (Gąsiorowska, Czerw, 2010, pp. 107-127).
On the other hand, hypotheses 1.4 and 1.5, assuming the relationship between the intensity of positive orientation and scales, power resulting from money and money as a source of evil have not been confirmed. The research conducted so far by Gąsiorowska and Czerw showed a relationship between these scales of attitudes towards money and optimism measured with the OPEB scale. It should be noted that this study was conducted on a group of people who had some experience with earning money. On the other hand, the Author's research was carried out on a group of young adults, where only 51% of respondents were working at the time of the research. Moreover, studies conducted on Polish nurses indicate a correlation between the financial situation and positive orientation (Miciuk et al., 2016). It should also be noted that there are no studies analyzing the direct relationship between positive orientation and attitudes towards money, therefore the research was exploratory.
The second research question concerned relationship between attitudes towards money and self-esteem. The second hypothesis, assuming the correlation of these two variables, was confirmed. Analysis of data presented in Table 3 shows an average, negative correlation between dimensions of financial anxiety and self-esteem, and a weak, negative correlation between the symbolic dimension and attitudes towards money, which confirmed the specific hypothesis 2.1. This result is confirmed by research conducted by Gąsiorowska (2014).This means that people with low self-esteem have a stronger emotional relationship with money and tend to use money to value themselves and others. Similar compliance with other studies was achieved in the case of hypothesis 2.2 (Gąsiorowska, 2014) and 2.3 (Wąsowicz-Kiryło, 2014).
Detailed hypothesis 2.4, assuming that people with low self-esteem have high scores on the scale the power resulting from money, has not been confirmed. Previous studies have shown that people with low self-esteem feel a greater need to strengthen it and that the emotional connection with money allows for compensating for the shortcomings (Gąsiorowska, 2014). In the literature on the subject, there are also reports whose results show a different relationship. They indicate that people with low self-esteem may seek to protect it, which leads to the emergence of a belief that money is not deserved, which leads to lowering of symbolic attitudes towards money (Juneman, Meinarno, & Rahardjo, 2012, pp. 106-115).

Final conclusions
Analysis of results confirmed all general hypotheses and a large part of specific hypotheses. Research has shown that people with higher self-esteem and a greater intensity of positive orientation exhibit instrumental attitudes to a greater extent, and symbolic attitudes to a lesser extent. Such a profile of attitudes towards money is conducive to building financial well-being and improving the financial situation. Therefore, working on the level of positive orientation and self-esteem can translate into perceived attitudes towards money.
An in-depth research and further analysis of relationship between attitudes towards money, self-esteem and positive orientation are recommended. Young adults were the subject of the study, therefore results cannot be generalized to the entire population. Age and limited professional experience could have influenced the perceived attitudes towards money (Gąsiorowska, 2008). It is justified to conduct research also in other age groups. Research comparing differences in perceived attitudes to money between the working and non-working population may also be of interest. As a rule, the work experience of respondents was less than that of the general population, so it may be worth conducting research on other age groups. Research comparing the unemployed who are actively looking for work with the economically inactive who are not working and are not looking for work at the same time may be valuable. Moreover, considering the ambiguous results of the research conducted so far regarding the differences between men and women in terms of perceived attitudes towards money, it is worth conducting additional and extended research.