Faculty Sponsor: Valarie Nazzaro
Live Poster Session: Paulina’s Zoom Link
Abstract: As money management has become more complex and difficult, financial stress has become prevalent in the lives of Americans with 47% of adults in the United States reporting their finances negatively affect their mental health (Gillespie). In this study, I decided to explore the association between feelings of financial stress as an adult and education level, along with any potential change in that relationship when controlling for the presence of student loans. I used the National Financial Well-Being Survey and created a score for feelings of financial stress that was summed from responses to questions that revolved around feelings of control and understanding about financial decisions and experiences in their adult life. In addition, education level was measured with a categorized response to “Highest Degree Earned”. Results presented a significant association between feelings of financial stress and education revealing that those with higher levels of education reported significantly decreased levels of financial stress in adulthood compared to each lower level of education. In addition, results found that individuals with student loans are significantly more likely to report higher financial stress across all levels of education.