College Students and Financial Distress: Exploring Debt, Financial Satisfaction, and Financial Anxiety
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Connects with: @archuleta2013 @prawitz2006
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archuleta2013 - p. 53
Financial anxiety served as the dependent variable and debt (i.e., student loans, credit cards, auto loans, and installment loans), financial satisfaction, financial knowledge, and demographic information (i.e., age, ethnicity, marital status, gross income, and gender) served as independent variables.
archuleta2013 - p. 53
Financial anxiety was measured using the newly developed Financial Anxiety Scale (FAS)
archuleta2013 - p. 53
FAS was developed by adapting Generalized Anxiety Disorder diagnostic criteria set forth by DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) to one’s financial situation
archuleta2013 - p. 54
The FAS asked participants to rate their reaction to seven items on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (always). Missing data were replaced with the median for each item. Once items were summed, scores on the FAS can range from 7 to 49. The mean score for this sample was 19.88 (SD = 17.0).
archuleta2013 - p. 54
Financial satisfaction was measured by using a single question similar to the one used by Prawitz et al. (2006). “How satisfied are you with your overall current financial situation?” Scores could range on a 10-point Likert-type scale from 1 to 10, where 1 implies very dissatisfied and 10 is associated with very satisfied. On average, financial satisfaction was 4.25 (SD = 2.36) for student clients. “How satisfied are you with your overall current financial situation?” Scores could range on a 10-point Likert-type scale from 1 to 10, where 1 implies very dissatisfied and 10 is associated with very satisfied. On average, financial satisfaction was 4.25 (SD = 2.36) for student clients.
archuleta2013 - p. 54
he average debt for student loans was 23,866.74), and other debt was 6,030.55). On average, clients in the survey held 1,550.91 in auto loan debt, and 15,143.28 (SD = $24,993.06).
archuleta2013 - p. 55
Perceived financial knowledge was measured using a single item question, “How would you rate your financial knowledge level?” Clients could respond on a scale from 1(lowest level) to 10 (highest level). Clients reported having a mean score of perceived financial knowledge of 4.63 (SD = 1.80)
archuleta2013 - p. 55
Collinearity diagnostics were also performed in SPSS, revealing no multi-collinearity among the variables.
archuleta2013 - p. 56
The final model (i.e., Step 4) accounted for 34% of the overall variance of financial anxiety and was significant (F = 10.80; p < .001)
archuleta2013 - p. 56
the only significant (p < .05) factors were financial satisfaction and gender
archuleta2013 - p. 58
The final model accounted for approximately 35% of the overall variance of financial anxiety (F = 9.93; p < .001) only financial satisfaction and gender were found to be significant predictors of financial anxiety, resulting in Hypotheses 1 and 6b being fully supported.
archuleta2013 - p. 58
the Financial Anxiety Scale (FAS) was developed and implemented as a measurement of financial mental health with high reliability (α = .94)
archuleta2013 - p. 58
Financial anxiety can be described as feeling anxious or worried about one’s financial situation
archuleta2013 - p. 59
financial knowledge was not found to be significantly associated with financial anxiety
archuleta2013 - p. 59
Although financial knowledge has been associated with credit card debt (Robb & Sharpe, 2009), credit card behavior (Robb, 2011), and financial well-being, it was not found to be significantly associated with financial anxiety. This particular sample reported being moderately knowledgeable about finances, which may indicate the less students think they know, the less they worry about it because they do not know that they should be anxious.
archuleta2013 - p. 60
Currently, no theory exists in the area of financial mental health. Theory related to the development and treatment of financial disorders should be developed.