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The impact of financial stress on college students can range from psychological distress to adverse academic outcomes. The purpose of this study was to identify how resources and perceptions alter the amount of financial stress felt by college students and how this relates to academic achievement. Results from 2,236 Midwestern college students indicate that financial and life stressors, higher subjective financial knowledge, fewer financial resources, negative perceptions, and lower mastery are associated with higher financial stress. Financial stress was not associated with academic achievement, but financial stressors, objective financial knowledge, and financial resources were highly related to financial stress. Increasing available financial resources to students, in addition to providing opportunities to increase financial knowledge for students, would likely be associated with decreased stress and better academic achievement.
Keywords: academic outcomes, financial behaviors, financial knowledge, financial stress, perceived mastery
College is occasionally portrayed as a time of optimistic and stress-free young adulthood, filled with late night existential discussions, and characterized by carefree attitudes that nearly all things are possible with sufficient resiliency and resolve. The reality for today's college students is often much bleaker. Because college students emerge from adolescence, they are met with a great deal of changes and new responsibilities as they become independent adults, much of which is stressful (Pierceall & Keim, 2007). In addition to new environments and responsibilities, for many students, it is their first encounter with budgeting, paying bills, and responsibly using credit (Gutter & Copur, 2011; Tinto, 2012). To add to this, students must skillfully navigate a complex financial environment which may include unstable personal finances, rapidly increasing tuition, and eroding financial support from parents and family (Worthy, Jonkman, & Blinn-Pike, 2010).
A potential source of financial stress for college students is the cost of tuition and fees, which has grown at 3 times the rate of inflation. In today's economy, students would have to work year-round at 55 hours per week to pay for the average public college tuition, whereas a student in the 1960s could have worked 40 hours per week in the summer and 15 hours per week during the school year to pay the same (Bousquet, 2008). The cost of working more hours is high in terms of academic and social integration on college...