Social Pressure and Excessive Wedding Spending: Financial Stress among Middle-Class Parents in Pakistan

Abstract

Over the last few years, the wedding rituals in Pakistan have become expensive due to social acceptance, community pressure, dowry burdens, and pomp and display. This study examines the effects of social pressure and overspending on weddings on financial stress for the middle-class parents of Pakistan. The study draws on Social Comparison Theory as well as Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption to examine three Independent Variables namely Conspicuous Consumption (CC), Community Spending Norms (CSN) and Dowry Practices (DP) and their influence on the mediating variable Ceremonial Expenditures (CE); the moderating variable Socioeconomic Status (SS) and the collective impact of these independent variables on Financial Stress (FS). This was a quantitative cross-sectional survey design with the inclusion of n = 225 middle-class parents from all over Pakistan. Moderated mediation pathways were tested using Hayes (Hayes, 2017a) PROCESS Macro (Model 7) on SPSS. Results show that Ceremonial Expenditures plays a significant mediation role between all three predictors and Financial Stress, and a significant moderation role between Socioeconomic Status and the Dowry Practices-Ceremonial Expenditures pathway (Index of Moderated Mediation = 0.0904, 95% CI [0.0243, 0.1736]. The results suggest useful implications for financial counseling, social policy, and financial education interventions with pre-marital financial planning in Pakistani society.