Social Learning Opportunities and the Financial Behaviors of College Students

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between financial social learning opportunities and financial behaviors of college students. Data were collected from 15,797 college students age 18 and over throughout the United States during spring and fall semesters of 2008. Financial behaviors were related to age, race, marital status, school rank, income level, loan amount, and qualification for financial aid. Results suggest important relationships exist between financial behaviors and financial social learning opportunities. Students who budget and save tended to have higher scores on the social learning opportunities indices than those who do not budget and save. Financial behaviors were positively related to social learning opportunities when controlling for demographic and financial characteristics.

Do the Financial Behaviours of College Students Vary by Their State’s Financial Education Policies?

“…This reinforces the results discussed previously (e.g. Gutter et al 2010) about the importance of parental involvement in subsequent behaviours of college students.…”

“…Numerous studies have confirmed that parental socialisation and formal education, particularly with respect to money, exert a positive influence on a child's efforts to acquire financial knowledge, skills and attitudes (i.e., Lyons et al 2006, Moschis 1987. Gutter et al (2010) also showed that college students with greater financial social learning opportunities, including discussing finances with their parents or friends and having observed their parents' financial behaviours, were more likely to be budgeting and saving. Because one's body of knowledge is expected to influence one's attitude toward performing behaviour, the financial management information that parents and educators share with youth is an important construct and has therefore been included in the model (Shim et al 2009).…”

An Exploratory Study of Personal Financial Wellbeing Determinants: Examining the Moderating Effect of Gender

“…Assessment of statistics in financial matters indicate that males and females have different levels of financial knowledge, money attitude and financial management, with females having lower levels in all items, and therefor they perceive different levels of financial wellbeing as well. Previous studies confirm the assumption that differences in the socialization process (Gutter, Garrison, & Copur, 2010;NewComb & Rabow, 1999;Shim, Xiao, Barber, & Lyons, 2009) result in differences in financial matters and therefore women are more dependent on men in financial decisions. For example, the findings of Newcomb and Rabow (1999) confirm that through the socialization process, boys and girls receive different financial messages from parents, and interestingly, while boys participate in most family financial decisions, girls are excluded from financial debates and discussions.…”

A Framework for Developing and Testing Financial Capability Education Programs Targeted to Elementary Schools

“…This social learning interacts with personality development during the formative years to influence preferences and habits (Beutler and Dickson 2008;Gutter, Garrison, and Copur 2010;John 1999). Programs in elementary school have the potential to augment or counteract these other influences (Suiter Downloaded by [New York University] at 23:51 13 June 2015 and Meszaros 2005), but to our knowledge, no studies to date have attempted to capture student, school, parental, and family characteristics with a large sample of students.…”