Progress 06/15/15 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the research activities and findings from this project included scholars, financial education practitioners, and consumers in a variety of fields including family studies, financial planning and counseling, and consumer studies. Findings from the project were disseminated through conference presentations, research publications, and social and print media to 1) professionals, such as financial counselors and county Cooperative Extension educators, 2) consumers, and 3) scholars. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Bartholomae attended the 2018 National Health Outreach Conference , the 2018 Biennial Conference of Family Economics and Resource Management Association (FERMA), and the 2018 American Council on Conumer Interests. Bartholomae met with NC-2172 members and conducted working meetings during these conferences. Barthlomae meets monthly via web-based conference software with the larger NC-2172 group and with project subgroups. Bartholomae meets annually in person with the NC-2172 group. These on-going meetings with Extension Professionals with similar appointments and research interests allows for professional networking and synergies through collaboration. NC2172 meetnigs include the participation of federal partners such as Dr. Caroline E. Crocoll (NIFA Director-Division of Family & Consumer Sciences) who discussed potential funding priorities identified by the new administration as they relate to NC-2172's research. Bartholomae used data from 2015 National Financial Capability Study to examine the association between a financial distress indicator and the probability of forgoing a healthcare service, it was examined using logistic regression. The dependent variable was "not using healthcare services as needed." Preliminary results suggest the probability of forgoing a healthcare service was: 1) lower for the financially distressed with high objective financial knowledge, and 2) higher for the financially distressed who rated their credit record favorably, had emergency savings, and rated their numeracy skills favorably. This study has implications for healthcare spending decisions among Iowa consumers. ? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Bartholomae advanced the scholarship related to NC-2172 team projects in several ways. In 2018-2019, Bartholomae served as a Special Editor of an issue on Student Loan Debt for the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. This Special Issue aligned with several research projects developed around student loans. Bartholomae led the development and publication of a manuscript entitled "Framing the Human Capital Investment Decision: Examining Gender Bias in Student Loan Borrowing", it was published in this Special Issue after undergoing the peer review process. In 2018, Bartholomae contributed to the publication of"Conceptualizing Health and Financial Wellness: Using Facilitated Discussion to Collect Input from Professionals" in the FORUM for Family and Consumer Issues (FCCI)Family Economics and Resource Management Special Issue. Bartholomae was the lead on a poster presentation and a proceedings publication (Advancing the Consumer Interest) of the study "Financial Distress and Forgone Healthcare". What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Consumers have been recovering from the multitude of financial pressures resulting from the 2008 global financial crisis. Home owners struggle with alarming levels of foreclosure while the collective student loan burden of $1 trillion has surpassed total credit card debt for the first time in history. Furthermore, aging baby boomers face the critically important decision of the optimal time to file for Social Security retirement benefits. All of these factors complicate consumer financial decision-making across the life span. Family financial decisionsand strategies can improve the financial security and well-being of individuals and families.NC-2172 projects focused on consumer financial practices and was designed to develop a better understandingof motivators and barriersto achieving financial decisions. Bartholomae advanced the NC-2172 efforts in the following ways: Retirement Decisions: Bartholomae was a collaborator and contributor to the development and submission of two AFRI proposals. The first AFRI grant proposal "Behavioral Economics and Succession Planning for Farmers and Ranchers" was a two-year project to engage behavioral economics and experimental methodologies to investigate financial decision-making related specifically to retirement and succession planning in rural America, primarily within farm and ranch families. Bartholomae committed to identifying partner organizations and recruiting subjects for the project. The Iowa work team committed to help identify farm and ranch-related experts to serve on the multi-state Virtual Advisory Group and to promote, schedule, implement, record, and analyze data from three focus groups with ranchers and farmers. The second AFRI grant proposal "The Impact of Health Insurance Access on Farmers and Ranchers" investigated the impact of health insurance access on farmers and ranchers and to create resources to help farmers and ranchers improve health, financial and health insurance decision-making. Bartholomae committed to similar activities as the first proposal, directing the facilitation and recruitment of virtual advisory group members, coordinating focus group research, and contributing to the development of research and extension outputs. Student Loan Decisions. Student loan borrowing is comprised of various dimensions, such as knowledge of the borrowing process, attitudes towards the financial and academic institution, and decision-making tendencies, including psychological factors including attitudes towards debt, debt burden, risk aversion, and personality. Bartholomae served as a Special Editor of an issue on Student Loan Debt for the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. This Special Issue aligned with several research projects developed around student loans. Bartholomae led the development and publication of a manuscript entitled "Framing the Human Capital Investment Decision: Examining Gender Bias in Student Loan Borrowing", it was published in this Special Issue after undergoing the peer review process. The paper is grounded in the theory of human capital and behavioral finance and investigated gender differences in student loan decisions using an experimental survey design. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment scenario about whether to enter college or the workforce. The scenario was manipulated by attribute frames of a gain, loss, or aspiration and varied by the gender of the character in a hypothetical scenario. The attribute frames did not influence consumer's evaluation of student loan decisions. No significant gender differences were found in the consumer's evaluation of student loan borrowing or the experimental treatment scenarios, suggesting societal movement towards more gender-neutral attitudes regarding student loan borrowing and degree-seeking motivations.The study had implications and recommendations related to institutional support in decision-making and helping estimate the true returns to education. Housing Decisions. Bartholomae and co-authors built upon a previous review of literature on millennial homeownership decisions. This review of literature has been read by 482 scholars (ResearchGate, December 2018) and cited in 22 publications (GoogleScholar, December 2018). Bartholomae helped in develop and field a housing affordability survey with Amazon's Mechanical Turk, the dataset is available to analyze consumer decisions related to housing. Healthcare Decisions. Bartholomae co-led a project to introduce financial wellness into the broader context of health and wellness. The first, "Exploring the Intersections of Health and Financial Wellness" was a symposia at the 2018 National Health Outreach Conference (NHOC) in May 2018. The second, "Conceptualizing Health and Financial Wellness: Using Facilitated Discussion to Collect Input from Professionals" was facilitated at the 2018 Biennial Conference of Family Economics and Resource Management Association (FERMA) in May 2018. The project purpose was to identify how health wellness and financial wellness intersect in daily life as observed by family and consumer sciences professionals in their professional settings and to introduce facilitated symposia discussions as a program design to help extension agents and others systematically collect inputs from a wide audience to explore new research areas.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Bartholomae, S., Xu, Y., Kiss, D.E., ONeill, B., Gutter, M.S. & Evans, D. (2018). Financial distress and foregone healthcare. National Health Outreach Conference. Symposium at the annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interest, Clearwater, FL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Johnson, C., Serido, J., Evans, D., Kiss, D.E., Saboe-Wounded Head, L., Bartholomae, S., & Tobe, E. (2018). Student loan repayment education: Multi-state texting intervention project. Symposium at the annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interest, Clearwater, FL.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bartholomae, S., Kiss, D.E., Jurgenson, J., ONeill, B., Worthy, S., & Kim, J. (2019). Framing the human capital investment decision: Examining gender bias in student loan borrowing. Submitted to Journal of Family and Economic Issue Special Issue on Student Loans.
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Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the research activities and findings from this project includes scholars, financial education practitioners, and consumers in a variety of fields including family studies, financial planning and counseling, and consumer studies. Findings from the project will be disseminated through conference presentations, research publications, and social and print media to 1) professionals, such as financial counselors and county Cooperative Extension educators, 2) consumers, and 3) scholars. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?NC-2172 meets monthly as a group, subgroups meet monthly, and we meet annually prior to the American Council of Consumer Interests conference. On-going meetings with Extension Professionals with similar appointments and research interests allows for professional networking and synergies through collaboration. The April 2017 NC-2172 meeting in Albuquerque included a meeting with Dr. Caroline E. Crocoll, NIFA Director-Division of Family & Consumer Sciences who discussed potential funding priorities identified by the new administration as they relate to NC-2172's research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NC-2172's eight student loan fact sheets have been tied into Bartholomae's work on student loans. The eight student loan fact sheets were shared as a resource with staff from Financial Aid Offices at a national conference. Information regarding student loan decision-making was disseminated during presentations at national conferences and in journal articles. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The renewal of NC-2172 is forthcoming and will resume under the revised multistate research project: NC_temp2172, "Behavioral economics and the intersection of healthcare and financial decision making across the lifespan." Bartholomae will continue to work with NC2172. The focus on consumer well-being and financial decision-making, and health care builds on Bartholomae's previous work on health insurance literacy and the intersection of health literacy and financial literacy. With a NC-2172 subgroup, Bartholomae helped develp two proposals on foregone healthcare utilizing data from the National Finanical Capability Study. Bartholomae will continue to serve on subcommittees to submit and develop manuscripts on housing affordability and student loans.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The NC-2172 research group continues to make strides in understanding of how American households make financial decisions related to student loans, housing, and retirement planning by mining current project data, examining existing literature on the topics, planning for data collection to produce new knowledge on the topics, and developing scholarship and outreach products related to these topics and activities. Findings from this project can help increase knowledge of financial education practitioners,scholars in a variety of fields including family studies, and financial planning counselors. Objective 1) Determine motivators that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations (housing, student loans, and Social Security) across the life-span of households. Bartholomae is lead author on a manuscript developed using a NC-2172 dataset that examines student loans. Bartholomae completed analysis and manuscript preparation on a study examining gender differences in the attitudes towards the value of a college degree. The manuscript "Gender Differences in Reasons for a College Degree and its Value as an Investment" will be ready for submission in late 2017. Bartholomae continues to be the lead convener of the NC-2172 subgroup exploring housing as a consumer decision. The subgroup collected data one year ago on Financial Behaviors including Housing Affordability. A manuscript is under development that is a qualitative analysis of how consumers define housing affordability. Objective 2) Determine barriers that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. Bartholomae helped develop a funding request ($37,000) to Next Generation Personal Finance. The research proposed a broad-based study on how young adults make decisions about housing options and retirement investments. The funding was to support data collection (including a pilot test of survey instruments), data analysis (including data transcription and student workers), data dissemination by researchers to financial educators, and administrative assessment fee. The goal was to understand how young adults think about, and plan for, their future, so outreach efforts can impact their habits. The findings from the research could then be applied to curriculum development. The research was not funded. Objective 3) Determine how motivators and barriers to economic decision-making can be presented in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. Bartholomae contributed to the grant development and submission to the AFRI grant program "Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities". The proposal is entitled "Behavioral Economics and Retirement Decision-Making for Farmers". Bartholomae committed to serving as a key personnel (3% time)on the project and will be involved as a research collaborator. Bartholomae will provide input to the project protocols and conduct 1 face-to-face experiment in Iowa. Objective 4) Suggest strategies that can be used to improve consumer financial decision-making. Bartholomae attended the USDA-NIFA Data Summit: Changing the Face, Place, and Space of Agriculture exploring the role of big data in USDA-NIFA's work. Bartholomae contributed to the discussion that explored the most promising opportunities for data-driven advances to address societal well-being and consumer demands. Big data is a cutting edge strategy being used to improve consumer decision making and well-being.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Fox, J.J., Bartholomae, S., Letkiewicz, & Montalto, C.P. (2017). College student debt and the decision to Default. Journal of Student Financial Aid, 47 (2). Article 6. Available at: http://publications.nasfaa.org/jsfa/vol47/iss2/6
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Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the research activities and findings from this project includes scholars, financial education practitioners, and consumers in a variety of fields including family studies, financial planning and counseling, and consumer studies. Findings from the project will be disseminated through conference presentations, research publications, and social and print media to 1) professionals, such as financial counselors and county Cooperative Extension educators, 2) consumers, and 3) scholars. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?NC-2172 meets monthly as a group, subgroups meet monthly, and we meet annually prior to the American Council of Consumer Interests conference. On-going meetings with Extension Professionals with similar appointments and research interests allows for professional networking and synergies through collaboration. The June 2016 NC-2172 meeting included David Rogofsky from the Social Security Administration (SSA), who discussed retirement planning research topics of interest to the SSA. He also shared information about the opportunity to supplement data collection efforts via the American Life Panel and the National Financial Capability. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?· Our housing paper [Xu, Y., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., O'Neill, B., & Gutter, M.S. (2015). Homeownership among millennials: The deferred American dream? Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 44 (2), 201-212.] won the best paper award at the 2016 American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. · At the November 2015 annual meeting for the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, we presented a poster presentation Housing decisions of millennials: Challenges and consequences (Xu, Y., O'Neill, B., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., & Gutter, M. (2015).) · In December 2015, we published in the proceedings of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education: Xu, Y., O'Neill, B., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., & Gutter, M. (2015). Housing decisions of millennials: Challenges and consequences. In V.J. Mason & D.E. Kiss (Eds.), Proceedings of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (p.13). · The eight student loan fact sheets have been tied into a multi-state (Bartholomae is part of a North Central Region collaboration) project currently being piloted that includes a targeted text message intervention targeted to students in the repayment stage of student loans. · The eight student loan fact sheets were shared as a resource for Iowa State University's student financial aid office. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Bartholomae is serving on subcommittees to develop manuscripts from the data collected on housing affordability and student loans.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This Iowa project has contributed to increasing understanding of financial decision-making related to student loans, housing, and retirement planning by mining current project data, examining existing literature on the topics, planning for data collection to produce new knowledge on the topics, and developing scholarship and outreach products related to these topics and activities. Understanding consumer financial decision-making will enhance the capacity of financial education practitioners, including university extension personnel, and and other professionals to deliver relevant and helpful financial education programming. Objective 1) Determine motivators that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations (housing, student loans, and Social Security) across the life-span of households. In 2015-2016, Bartholomae helped with statistical analyses and manuscript preparation on the student loan data. Using the quantitative data collected with experimental methods, Bartholomae led the subgroups examining gender and student loans. Bartholomae led the development of the manuscript "Gender Differences in Reasons for a College Degree and its Value as an Investment", to be submitted for review in early 2017. The study explores the role that information plays in the perceived human capital investment value by males versus females for a male or female in a hypothetical educational scenario. Bartholomae led a subgroup to develop a housing affordability survey to help determine motivators in the housing decision. Objective 2) Determine barriers that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. Building on the literature review published entitled "Housing and Family Decisions", Bartholomae led the housing subgroup this past year. The subgroup developed and disseminated (via Amazon's Mechanical Turk) a housing affordability survey in early September 2016. Next steps include data cleaning and developing several scholarly papers utilizing the dataset. Objective 3) Determine how motivators and barriers to economic decision-making can be presented in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. In 2015-2016, a housing affordability survey was developed and disseminated to determine motivators and barriers related to the housing decision. Bartholomae worked on a gender and student loan paper based on experimental data collected in 2014-2015 to determine gender differences in motivations for human capital investment. The paper will be submitted for review in early 2017. Objective 4) Suggest strategies that can be used to improve consumer financial decision-making. Eight student loan fact sheets were developed as a new eXtension resource for financial educators. Bartholomae shared this resource with home university college student financial aid professionals.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/15 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Findings from the project were disseminated through conference presentations and research publications to 1) professionals, such as financial counselors and county Cooperative Extension educators, 2) consumers, and 3) scholars. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Besides the annual conference that allowed for collaboration with Extension Professionals with similar appointments and research interests, the group attended a 1-hour webinar hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Center for Financial Security during which the authors presented findings from their book It's Not Like I'm Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World. The group viewed and discussed the topic of emergency savings, the use of tax returns, and saving strategies among limited resource populations. At our April NC-2172 meeting David Rogofsky from the Social Security Administration joined our conference call to share information about the American Life Panel, the National Financial Capability Survey and the goals that SSA/HHS/FINRA hope to accomplish with new data collection efforts. Bartholomae co-led the effort to collect and organize the comments and suggestions regarding the content of American Life Panel and the National Financial Capability Survey. The NC-2172 October meeting hosted a speaker (Stephanie Marken from Gallup) who presented findings from the Gallup-Purdue Index. We learned more about the value that people put on a college degree, outside of the traditional factors of employment and starting salary. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The NC-2172 group was invited to present at the 2015 annual conference of the American Council on Consumer Interests. Colleagues in the field were given updates about our project and new members were recruited: The NC-2172 Gutter, M., Kim, J, & O'Neill, B. NC2172: Behavioral Economics and Financial Decision-Making and Information Management Across the Lifespan. American Council on Consumer Interests, May 2015. The housing review was published in November 2015: Xu, Y., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., O'Neill, B., & Gutter, M.S. (2015). Homeownership among millennials: The deferred American dream? Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal 44:201-212. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Bartholomae is serving on the subcommittee to help develop the next phase of data collection on retirement planning (e.g., Social Security). Bartholomae is co-author on a manuscript about gender and debt. Bartholomae is in the early stages of collaboration with a member of NC-2172 about a study using student loan complaint data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The NC-2172 research group continues to make strides in understanding financial decision-making related to student loans, housing, and retirement planning by mining current project data, examining existing literature on the topics, planning for data collection to produce new knowledge on the topics, and developing scholarship and outreach products related to these topics and activities. Objective 1) Determine motivators that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations (housing, student loans, and Social Security) across the life-span of households. Qualitative and quantitative data on the topic of student loans was collected in 2014-2015. Subgroups are examining the quantitative data collected with experimental methods. Bartholomae is working with a subcommittee to develop a manuscript related to gender and student loans. Specifically, the group will examine motivators related to the importance of getting a degree, financing college (e.g., acquiring student loans-, and the amount of debt to accumulate. Objective 2) Determine barriers that affect economic decision-making in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. In preparation for the next data collection phase, Bartholomae participated in a subcommittee that reviewed the literature on the home ownership decision and millennials to identify barriers that impact the acquisition of this asset. Bartholomae developed the "Housing and Family Decisions" section to identify barriers to the home ownership decision. A review of literature was published on the topic. Objective 3) Determine how motivators and barriers to economic decision-making can be presented in specific decision situations across the life-span of households. In 2014-2015, data were collected to help determine motivators and barriers to economic decision-making through an experimental design. Survey respondents were presented with a scenario describing a young individual who is either deciding to attend college or go straight into the workplace; three different treatments were tested related to the cost of student loans and the development of human capital. A total of 4 future papers from the experimental group were identified, Bartholomae is working on a gender and student loan paper based on this experimental data. The review of literature has been developed and analyses are underway. Bartholomae also has a manuscript that is a revise and resubmit related to college student debt and the decision to default. Objective 4) Suggest strategies that can be used to improve consumer financial decision-making. A key question related to the housing decision is whether homeownership is still important and how student loan obligations impact this decision, as well as the role of family decisions related to the topic (such as moving home with parents, getting married, and having children). The review of literature identified attitudes among millennials; future research will help identify strategies that facilitate home ownership and/or the management of student loan debt.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Xu, Y., ONeill, B., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., & Gutter, M. (2015). Housing decisions of millennials: Challenges and consequences. Poster presentation at the annual conference for the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, Jacksonville, FL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Xu, Y., ONeill, B., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., & Gutter, M. (2015). Housing decisions of millennials: Challenges and consequences. In V.J. Mason & D.E. Kiss (Eds.), Proceedings of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (p.13).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Xu, Y., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., ONeill, B., & Gutter, M.S. (2015). Homeownership among millennials: The deferred American dream? Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal 44:201-212.
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