FINANCIAL SOCIALIZATION THEORY DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCIAL LITERACY

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1000051
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2013
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2016
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108

Performing Department
Family Social Science

Non Technical Summary
The aim of this project is to develop a family financial socialization theory and analze data about high school students to garner evidence to support the propositions of the theory or refute them. The researcher will learn about youth and finances as they transition to adulthood, create new families, their perceptions about finances, and how their normative conceptions of attitudes and activities are reinforced or are redirected to facilitate or create healthy financial behavior change.

Animal Health Component

50%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

50%

Developmental

50%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
801	6020	3010	100%

Knowledge Area
801 - Individual and Family Resource Management;

Subject Of Investigation
6020 - The family and its members;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;

Keywords

youth finances

financial socialization

healthy financial behavior

Goals / Objectives
Project objectives are twofold: (a) to advance the family financial socialization conceptual model to the next step in theory development by testing some of its propositions, and (b) to follow high school students for a year after studying financial planning to investigate their financial behavior change patterns.

Project Methods
Four U.S. classrooms that studied a financial planning curriculum were chosen that reflected varied SES levels. One classroom is located in a low SES rural area. One classroom is part of a private school in an urban area and represents a high SES area. Two other schools were located in communities with diverse SES backgrounds. SES was determined by classroom in this study rather than by individual student because information gathered from students about parent income would not be reliable. SES was determined based on several data points to address construct validity. The most objective of these data points was percent of students within the school who received government-assisted lunches. An internet search was also done to determine descriptive income statistics of the communities in which the schools were located. Data from these youth were collected but not fully analyzed and will be used to meet the project's objectives. The extensive data originate from focus groups, end-of-study questionnaires and year-long quarterly internet interviews. Information gathered at school visits were used to establish a baseline of financial knowledge, behavior, and self-efficacy for each student. One and 1/2 hour student focus group interviews were done to assess what was learned from the curriculum study and what financial behavior changes occurred during the classroom study. A post-then-pre questionnaire (Rockwell & Kohn, 1989) was given to students at the end of the curriculum study to assess the financial knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavior gains as an immediate result of the curriculum study. The long-term effect on financial behavior patterns will be established through four student internet interviews over the process of one year. A total of 77 students participated in the internet interviews, 58.2% were male. Most students were seniors (62.7%) or juniors (38.5%). About 27% of students identified themselves as other than white; the ethnic groups reported were Hispanic (8.6%), African American (5.7%), Asian/Pacific Islander (4.3%), and American Indian (4.3%); two students (2.9%) reported "other". Nearly half of the students (48.6%) reported living in a town of less than 25,000 people. Slightly over a fifth (21.4%) reported living in a city of over 100,000 people and 25.7% reported living in a rural area or on a farm. The technology set-up for the quarterly internet interviews with students included precautions in order to meet human subject standards. The chat rooms required a SQL server to encrypt the data and maintain confidentiality. The University of Minnesota has an SQL server available in their UM Connect chat rooms. UM Connect is a program that is used for on-line synchronous teaching. The research project was able to contact participants by phone or email and schedule an interview time. Prior to the online chat interview, participants were emailed a hyper link that brought them to the secure chat room. The participant could only enter and join the chat room with the interviewer's approval, at which point, only those two had access to the private chat room. In preparation for the online interview, the interviewer would open a word document with the interview questions, along with a blank document for saving the completed chat interview transcript. Completed interview transcripts were saved as files to the University of Minnesota server. This server is backed up automatically every night. In this way, none of the data provided by the students remained on-line. Transcripts were saved in two formats: 1) as original raw interviews, and 2) as modified interviews with all personal information, such as names, removed and replaced with a changed unrelated naming system. Similar questions were asked across the quarterly internet interviews to assess behavior pattern change. Questions were asked about such concepts as spending, saving, borrowing, money management practices, budgeting, investing, confidence, plans after high school, employment patterns or such things as military service, finances and friends and family members, values, beliefs and attitudes about finances. Family financial practices were also asked as well as those of their current developing families because a number of students married over that year or had children of their own. This longitudinal qualitative data then can be compared with baseline quantitative classroom data with the focus group interview data.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Financial counselors, financial coaches, family therapists, financial educators, family financial researchers, family researchers Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Financial education in high schools increases financial knowledge and behavior, especially for females and minority students. End-of-life planning increases for children whose parents died a painful death or whose parents did planning for themselves. Financial counseling and education for American Indians needs to incorporate distinctive cultural underpinnings to be effective.

Publications

• Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Danes, S.M., Deenanath, V., & Yang, Y. (2016). Evaluation of Financial Literacy Development of High School Students: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study. In C. Aprea, E. Wuttke, B. Klaus, N. K. Koh, P. Davies, B. Greimel-Fuhrmann, & J.S. Lopus (Eds.), International Handbook of Financial Literacy (Chap. 29, ppgs. 425-447), Singapore: Springer.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Danes, S.M., Garbow, J., & Hagen-Jokela, R. (2016). Financial management and culture: The American Indian Case. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 27(1), 61-79. DOI: 10.1891/1052-3073.27.1.61
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Woosley, A., Danes, S.M., & Stum, M (2016). Utilizing a family decision-making lens to examine adults end-of-life planning actions. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-12. DOI: 10.1007/s10834-016-9497-0

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience are teachers, financial management researchers, policy makers, decision makers in financial institutions interested in financial capability of youth. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Extension Educators and myself trained Extension Educators in Michigan State University in teaching financial management to Latinos of Mexican American and American Indian descent through a series of webinars. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?They have been disseminated through workshops that Extension Educators have done and through professional presentations at conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are further developing educational tools and activities that are more reflective of the Native American and Mexican American culture. Those workshops will be evaluated and focus groups will occur to assess the long-term behavior change and the impact of using culturally aware educational materials and teaching approaches.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Extension Educators and myself trained Extension Educators in Michigan State University in teaching financial management to Latinos of Mexican American and American Indian descent through a series of webinars.

Publications

• Type: Book Chapters Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2016 Citation: Danes, S.M., Deenanath, V., & Yang, Y. (In press). Evaluation of Financial Literacy Development of High School Students: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study. In Klaus (Ed.), NY, NY Springer.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Danes, S.M., Alba, A., & Landers, A. (In press). Cultural meanings of resource management for Mexican Americans. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. DOI: 10.1007/s10834-015-9476-x
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2016 Citation: Danes, S.M., Garbow, J., & Hagen-Jokela, R. (In press). Financial management and culture: The American Indian Case. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: financial educators, financial counselors Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Extension Educators in the University of Minnesota Extenaion in the Family Developement Center received a summary of the research article in a research update. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The journal is distributed to all members of the Association of Financial Counseling and Planning. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Publish other journal articles and report the findings at the AFCPE conference.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? An assessment of theory use was made over the 30 years of the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning. A new conceptual framework was introduced entitled Family Financial Socialization. Whites, those growing up in a farm family business, and those who were working had higher financial knowledge; male and female knowledge different by content.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Danes, S.M., & Yang, Y. (2014). Assessment of the Use of Theory within the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and Contribution of the Family Socialization Conceptual Model. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning Education, 25 (1), 53-68.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Danes, S. M., & Brewon, K.E. (2014). The role of learning context in high school students financial knowledge and behavior acquisition. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 35, 81-94. Doi: 10.1007/s10834-013-9351-6.