The purpose of this study is to analyze differences in self-reported financial vulnerability among older adults by immigrant status. Overall, foreign-born Hispanic males have lower anxiety frequency related to day-to-day financial decisions than both U.S. born Hispanic males and foreign-born White males. However, foreign-born respondents have higher odds of being “very worried” about losing financial freedom when compared to US-born respondents who are “not worried” or “somewhat worried” about losing financial freedom. More specifically, foreign-born White males or foreign-born Hispanic females have 267.8% and 471.9% higher odds of being “very worried” about losing financial freedom than U.S.-born White males or U.S.-born Hispanic females who are “not worried” or “somewhat worried” about losing financial freedom, respectively. Finally, foreign-born respondents are more likely to have higher frequencies of being talked into spending or donating when compared to US-born respondents. In particular, foreign-born Hispanic females have 211.7% higher odds of having higher frequencies of being talked into spending or donating money when they initially did not want to than U.S.-born Hispanic females.
Families with mixed documented and undocumented legal statuses encounter significant challenges that impact their financial wellbeing (Ayon et al., 2023). This study explores family financial socialization within Latine mixed-status families, a relatively understudied group. Over the past decade, research has highlighted the crucial role parents play in shaping their children’s financial understanding. This process involves transmitting financial information, skills, attitudes, and behaviors through observation, discussions, and experiential learning. While previous studies have noted variations in family financial socialization based on race, ethnicity, and immigration status, there is limited research on mixed-status families. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the experiences and perceptions of 12 dyads of college students and their parents from Latine mixed-status families across the United States. By focusing on how immigration status influences financial socialization, the study seeks to uncover the unique challenges these families face and their strategies for financial education. This research will provide valuable insights into the dynamics of financial socialization in Latine mixed-status families, contributing to a broader understanding of how diverse family backgrounds impact financial well-being.
Despite the number of immigrants in the U.S., limited research exists on their financial fraud experience. Delving deeper into immigrants’ financial fraud experience including the types of fraud is important because it can be a barrier for them to be fully integrated into the U.S. economy. The primary purpose of this study was to understand the fraud experience of immigrant consumers in the United States and to identify possible associations between individual factors and state-level factors and financial fraud experience and type of fraud experienced. Individual factors include financial literacy and cognitive abilities (from the data of Understanding America Study), and state-level factors include measures for proportion immigrant population (from the American Community Survey) and fraud severity (from Federal Trade Commission) in the state of residence. The study found that financial fraud experience was more widespread for first- and second-generation immigrants compared to non-immigrants, and misrepresentation of information was the most frequently experienced type of financial fraud. The results from SEM showed that the lower financial literacy among second-generation immigrants and the trend that immigrants tend to reside in the states with more foreign-born population and with higher fraud severity partially contributed to immigrants’ fraud experience.
This study examines how citizenship and immigration status, along with distinct pre-migration and post-migration factors, shape financial engagement and inclusion among U.S. consumers, focusing particularly on immigrants. Financial resilience and equitable access to services are essential for consumer well-being, yet many immigrants face barriers rooted in both their countries of origin and experiences in the U.S. Using data from the FDIC-CPS, this study explores how pre-migration factors—such as financial norms, home-country banking system maturity, and language proficiency—interact with post-migration factors like citizenship status, age of arrival, and ethnicity enclave capital to influence financial engagement. These variables affect immigrants' interaction with formal financial services, which tend to have more regulation, and can also push them toward alternative financial services that often have less regulation, potentially higher interest rates, and additional service fees. Access to regulated financial services is essential for resilience against economic shocks. Findings will identify key barriers that immigrant populations face, guiding policies and initiatives aimed at promoting financial equity and resilience. By addressing these disparities, financial institutions and policymakers can create a more inclusive financial system that strengthens the economic well-being of underserved consumers.
This research utilizes the Panel Study of Income Dynamics dataset to examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act on labor force participation and overall well-being among workers with disabilities, with a particular focus on expanding individuals with Medicaid and access to healthcare exchanges. It also examines the ACA and Medicaid expansion associations on income level change for individuals with disabilities and compares labor force participation for individuals with disabilities between states that have adopted Medicaid expansion and those that haven't. The preliminary findings in this study add empirical evidence that the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion positively impact labor participation levels and directly benefit family income levels due to better healthcare access, especially for individuals from lower incomes or with disabilities.
Financial anxiety is a crucial topic in financial well-being and public health issues. Financial resilience, as a specific financial capability for coping with adversity, can promote financial well-being and holistic health. However, the association between financial resilience and financial anxiety has yet to be examined, particularly considering cross-national heterogeneities. Built on resilience theory and international evidence, this study proposed and examined a framework of global financial health nexuses. Empirical data was extracted from the World Bank, United Nations, and Fraser Institute. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the multilevel data from 100,134 adults across 131 countries. After considering country-level indicators, there were still significantly negative associations between subjective or objective financial resilience and financial anxiety. Cross-national differences in financial anxiety were also significantly influenced by individual characteristics, human development index, and social welfare expenditure. Subjective financial resilience showed higher effects than its objective counterparts. Extreme poverty and social welfare expenditure were significant moderators. This study contributes to providing a global development perspective on relations and variations between financial resilience and financial anxiety, and it also suggests contextually adaptable implications for international policies and services on socioeconomic interventions, sustainable development, and financial health promotion.
This research examines the role of financial resilience in supporting well-being, particularly during and after adverse life events. Financial resilience is defined as a composite of four dimensions: economic resources, financial access and inclusion, financial knowledge and behavior, and social capital (Salignac et al., 2019). Our study utilizes data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, covering the period from 2014 to 2020. To explore how financial resilience impacts well-being, we employ fixed effects panel regression, focusing on indicators such as life satisfaction, financial satisfaction, and mental health. Additionally, we apply a difference-in-difference event study design to examine the "bounce back" effect, assessing how financial resilience influences recovery from adverse life events. The findings contribute to our understanding of how financial resilience acts as a buffer against declines in well-being following financial and personal shocks, helping individuals recover more quickly. These results highlight the crucial role of financial resilience in safeguarding both financial stability as well as mental health and well-being.
With the rise of social media and a growing interest in how it is related to mental health, it is becoming increasingly important to consider the relationship between social media and financial mental health. As regulators consider policy for social media in order to mitigate its potential negative impacts on adolescent mental health, often the element of financial mental health is overlooked. This study looks to better address this gap in research by exploring the association between social media and financial anxiety. By using data from the National Financial Capability Study, this project will explore how social media and other factors are related to financial anxiety and make recommendations for future research and potential regulation.
This research aims to address the literature gaps by investigating the associations between social media usage and investor optimism, especially when considering the interaction between subjective and objective investment knowledge. Utilizing the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) main dataset and its supplementary Investor Survey, this study specifically examines how the use of social media as an investment information source affects investors’ portfolio performance expectations. Particular attention is paid to comparing investors who anticipate above-market performance versus those expecting market-equivalent returns, with investment knowledge serving as a potential mediating factor.
