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The Life Course Research Framework: Illustrative Application in the Study of Financial Behaviors: Research Frontiers and New Directions
Abstract
Research efforts in the field of personal finance are yet to benefit from recent theoretical and methodological developments in behavioral and social sciences that have advanced the life course paradigm as the leading research framework for studying behavior over time (e.g., Colby 1998; Elder et al. 2003; George 2003; Mayer and Tuma 1990). For example, although this multi-theoretical paradigm is mentioned as a viable research framework for the study of behavioral and mental changes that surround the critical life event of retirement and the impact of these changes on psychological well-being (Hershey and Henkens 2013), there is limited research on the experienced and expected consequences of this transition on the individual’s financial behaviors. Similarly, models of financial behavior that attempt to incorporate life course theory and concepts (e.g., Hershey et al. 2010) are void of many key elements of the life course paradigm. For example, although the life course “principles” of time and timing have important implications for the development of financial solvency (Hershey and Jacobs-Lawson 2012), they are absent from recent multi-theoretical formulations (e.g., Hershey et al. 2010). Another drawback in previous research efforts is inherent in the analytic methods commonly used (e.g., regression, probit, logit, discriminant), as such methods not only are inferior to more recently developed analytic models, collectively known as “event history analysis” (EHA) (e.g., Frazer et al. 1994; Mayer and Tuma 1990), but also inappropriate for analyzing development and changes of behavior. The latter methods have facilitated the development of the life course approach as the leading research framework (Mayer and Tuma 1990) that is considered one of the most important achievements of social science and behavioral sciences (Colby 1998).
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Though perceived financial well-being is viewed as an important topic of consumer research, the literature contains no accepted definition of this construct. Further, there has been little systematic examination of how perceived financial well-being may affect overall well-being. Using consumer financial narratives, several large-scale surveys, and two experiments, perceived financial well-being is conceptualized as two related, but separate constructs: 1) stress related to the management of money today (current money management stress); and 2) a sense of security in one’s financial future (expected future financial security). We develop and validate measures of these constructs (web appendix A) and then demonstrate their relationship to overall well-being, controlling for other life domains and objective measures of the financial domain. Our findings demonstrate that perceived financial well-being is a key predictor of overall well-being and comparable in magnitude to the combined effect of other life domains (job satisfaction, physical health assessment, and relationship support satisfaction). Further, the relative importance of current money management stress to overall well-being varies by income groups and that current money management stress and expected future financial security have differing antecedents. Implications for financial well-being and education efforts are offered.
This study investigates the impact of financial literacy, socialization agents and parental norms on money management. Data collected via questionnaire from postgraduate students in both private and public institution of higher learning (proxy for young adults) are used in this study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis is applied to establish the causal relations between the constructs of the proposed model. The results from this study indicate that financial literacy, financial socialization agents, and parental norms play a significant role on money management of young adults.
In examining how stress influences consumer saving and spending, the authors propose that consumers who experience a stressful situation allocate their resources strategically to gain control of their environment. A series of studies shows that this strategic allocation of resources occurs in two ways. Consumers experiencing stress may show increased saving behavior, which assures them that monetary resources will be available when needed. Alternatively, consumers experiencing stress may show increased spending behavior, directed specifically toward products that the consumer perceives to be necessities and that allow for control in an otherwise uncontrollable environment. This conceptualization and the related findings can inform assessments of when stress will lead to beneficial or impulsive consumer behaviors.
Extending a theoretical framework combining consumer socialization and planned behavior theories, the authors examined the influences that parents and romantic partners exert on college students' financial attitude and behavior using two waves of data collected from a sample of students in their first year (Wave 1) and fourth year (Wave 2) of college who were in a committed relationship at Wave 2 (N = 693 individuals). Using structural equation modeling, a positive relationship was found between the concurrent financial behavior of the parents and romantic partners and students' financial behavior (direct effects). After accounting for the parents' financial behavior at Wave 1, concurrent financial behavior of romantic partners (but not parents) positively predicted students' financial attitude, which in turn positively predicted students' financial behavior (indirect effects). These findings increase our understanding of the type and the timing of financial socialization factors that influence the financial behavior of college students.
In this investigation the content, structure and process aspects of individuals'retirement goals were examined (cf., Austin and Vancouver, 1996). Working Americanadults (N = 184) aged 20 - 64 years (M = 41.8 yrs.) made four ratings for each of twelvecommonly cited retirement goals. For each goal, individuals rated how important it was(goal importance), the amount of thought and effort they had allocated toward achievingit (goal striving), the likelihood that it actually would be achieved (goal expectancy), andhow bad it would be if the goal was not met (outcome consequence). Factor analyticwork revealed support for a two-factor model that distinguished self-oriented retirementgoals from goals involving others. Furthermore, path analyses revealed that goalexpectancy was well predicted on the basis of goal striving, among other factors.Surprisingly, age differences in individuals' goal ratings were not particularlypronounced, perhaps due to the strong social forces that serve to shape Americans' longrangeretirement lifestyle aspirations. The findings from this study have clearimplications for the development of future theoretical models of retirement goal-setting.
Do individuals’ perceptions of how much others save for retirement influence their own long-range financial saving decisions? In this study, social comparison theory was used as a theoretical touchstone for understanding the impact of interpersonal perceptions on saving behavior. Respondents (N = 224) reported not only the amount they had saved for retirement during the previous year, but they also reported perceptions of the magnitude of their savings relative to peers and completed 6 psychological scales related to retirement planning. A 2-stage ordinary least squares (OLS) regression approach was used to examine: (a) the extent to which nine demographic indicators were predictive of individuals’ retirement savings practices, and (b) whether unexplained savings from the initial regression model could be hierarchically predicted using the 6 psychological scales and perceptions of one’s savings relative to peers. The findings suggest that social comparisons do account for savings practices over and above demographic and psychological indicators. Results are discussed in terms of how individuals’ implicit social comparisons might shape not only their perceptions, but also their saving behavior.
The investigation of the etiologic role of life events on illness has been hampered by a wide variety of methodological issues. This paper represents an attempt to describe these issues in a systematic way and to test them using data from a large community survey. Each issue (scope of item content, multidimensional structure, confoundedness with dependent variables, objective-subjective scoring, desirability) is outlined and its effect on the relationship between life events and depressive symptoms is examined. The study concludes that even when different ways of evaluating life events are considered, the relatively small relationship to depressive symptoms cannot be improved substantially.
Financial knowledge has been identified as an issue of importance to individual financial wellness. The FINRA Financial Capability Study provides data that make it possible to assess financial knowledge, and to analyze it in the context of financial satisfaction and participation in financial behaviors that are generally considered positive. This paper looks at these relationships by gender and by age group, identifying key differences in outcomes and behaviors. The aim of this study was to identify areas and issues where policy makers can focus efforts, and where practitioners can develop education and therapy protocols to assist clients in financial development and restoration.
In this study we use depth interviews and interpretive analysis to examine the experience of divorce from a consumer behavior perspective, and in so doing, we extend recent consumer research on role transitions and add a new and formerly neglected dimension to extant scholarship on divorce. We begin with a discussion of prior research on divorce and its likely implications for consumer behaviors. Following a discussion of the research method, we present findings suggesting that acts of disposition, acquisition, and consumption are not only altered by divorce, but that they also play key roles in the complex interplay of human emotions and relationships.
Claims that attributions and their related behaviors may reflect a type of perceived control that is generally overlooked. People attempt to gain control by bringing the environment into line with their wishes (primary control) and by bringing themselves into line with environmental forces (secondary control). Four manifestations of secondary control are considered: (a) Attributions to severely limited ability can serve to enhance predictive control and protect against disappointment; (b) attributions to chance can reflect illusory control, since people often construe chance as a personal characteristic akin to an ability ("luck"); (c) attributions to powerful others permit vicarious control when the individual identifies with these others; and (d) the preceding attributions may foster interpretive control, in which the individual seeks to understand and derive meaning from otherwise uncontrollable events in order to accept them. (5½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research on expected quality of life in retirement has focused on the perceptions of individuals either living in retirement or nearing retirement age. In this article, data are reported that examine expectations of (future) retirement quality of life among younger and middle-aged adults. Toward this end, a new scale—the Satisfaction with Life in Retirement Scale—is introduced. As part of the study, a pair of age-specific, theoretically-driven, hierarchically-structured path models were tested in which individuals’ perceptions of future retirement satisfaction were regressed on indicators of financial knowledge, future time perspective, financial risk tolerance, and parental financial values. Models from both age groups were successful in accounting for variability in perceptions of future retirement satisfaction; however, age differences in the model were observed. The results of this investigation have implications for retirement counselors and intervention specialists who seek to cultivate positive perceptions of late life among individuals of different ages.
Previous research has found that children incrementally learn how to cope with advertising as they age. The current research investigates whether these developmental constraints in advertising knowledge at time of exposure have enduring consequences. Results from four experimental studies show that childhood exposure to advertisements can lead to resilient biased product evaluations that persist into adulthood. Study 1 demonstrates that positive affect toward ad-related stimuli encountered in childhood mediates the relationship between childhood advertising exposure and biased evaluations for products associated with childhood (but not adulthood) advertising. Study 2 demonstrates stronger biases when participants are exposed to childhood advertising cues relative to childhood consumption cues. Studies 3 and 4 show that even when ability and motivation to correct bias are high, lingering positive affect toward childhood ad-related stimuli is a motivational deterrent to correct biased product evaluations. Study 4 also shows that biased product evaluations can transfer to line extensions.
As the elderly population increases, more family, friends, and paid service providers assist them with consumption activities in a group that the authors conceptualize as the elderly consumption ensemble (ECE). Interviews with members of eight ECEs demonstrate consumption in advanced age as a group phenomenon rather than an individual one, provide an account of how the practices and discourses of the ECE’s division of consumption serve as a means of knowing someone is old and positioning him/her as an old subject, and detail strategies through which older consumers negotiate their age identity when it conflicts with this positioning. This research (1) illuminates ways in which consumer agency in identity construction is constrained in interpersonal interactions, (2) demonstrates old identity as implicated in consumption in relation to and distinction from physiological ability and old subject position, and (3) updates the final stages of the Family Life Cycle model.
Determining an appropriate and desirable income replacement rate is one of the keys to developing a successful personal financial plan for retirement. In the present investigation, we examined workers’ expectations of the pre-retirement income they believed would be necessary in order to have a “good” retirement relative to the income they anticipated they would receive. Analyses revealed an expected income shortfall, the magnitude of which was positively related to one’s income and age. Sex was also related to the magnitude of the expected shortfall, with women anticipating a larger financial discrepancy than men. Finally, a sex by marital status interaction emerged in which single women were found to have a larger shortfall than single men and married individuals of both sexes. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of interventions aimed at educating workers to understand the value of selecting a reasonable retirement income replacement rate.
Much of the existing literature on financial behavior focuses on basic money management tasks (e.g., balancing a checkbook). However, it can be equally important to identify problematic financial behaviors that can sabotage one’s financial health. The purpose of this study was to create an assessment tool that can be used by mental health and financial professionals to identify disordered money behaviors that may impede on progress towards one’s financial goals. This study asked 422 respondents to indicate their agreement with disordered money behaviors, including compulsive buying, pathological gambling, compulsive hoarding, workaholism, financial enabling, financial dependence, financial denial, and financial enmeshment, which were correlated with demographic characteristics and financial outcomes. The results identified eight subscales derived from 68 disordered money behavior items. All eight subscales were found to have high reliability in measuring disordered behaviors, and six were associated with negative financial health indicators (e.g. less net worth, less income, and/or more revolving credit).
One of the more pressing societal challenges American institutions will face in the coming decades is to ensure that individuals who choose to leave the workforce have made wise financial decisions in preparation for retirement (Cutler, Gregg, & Lawton, 1992). The present study was designed to measure pre‐retirees’ ability to make accurate decisions about the affordability of retiring from regular employment. The two goals of the investigation were to measure whether knowledge of finance and retirement planning mediated the quality of individuals’ decisions, and to determine whether a brief educational training program could be used to improve decision performance. A within‐subjects design was employed in which subjects were asked to provide solutions to four realistic retirement planning decision scenarios: two prior to an educational intervention, and two following the intervention. Results indicate that although subjects’ knowledge of the domain increased significantly as a function of training, the overall quality of their decisions did not significantly improve from pretest to posttest. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of both the individual and society.
Financial literacy research of the past 40 years (1970–2010) has largely ignored the reasons for sociodemographic differences in financial outcomes. The primary purpose of this paper is to initiate a theoretical discussion regarding family financial socialization—what it is; why it is important; and how its tenets could help advance understanding of individual differences in financial literacy. To this end, we propose a conceptual model that integrates family socialization theory and recent trends in financial literacy research. The study concludes with an interdisciplinary critical review of 100 articles which provide illustrations, highlight gaps, and present opportunities for further research with many practical guidelines for advancing deeper understanding of financial literacy from a socialization perspective.
Purpose:
This study examines how life satisfaction changes as a function of the transition into retirement, distinguishing between different types of voluntary and involuntary exits.
Design and methods:
Perceived satisfaction with life (SWL) was measured among 1,388 older Dutch workers on two occasions, separated by 6 years. During that time, more than half of participants (54%) left full-time employment and entered retirement.
Results:
Those who made a voluntarily departure from the workforce reported higher levels of perceived SWL compared with those who remained employed, whereas the life satisfaction scores of those whose departure was involuntary (due to health reasons, organizational reasons) were found to be the lowest. Other factors that had an effect on satisfaction included positive and negative health changes experienced during the 6-year interim, as well as changes in marital status due to divorce or loss of a spouse.
Implications:
These findings have important theoretical implications for the understanding of factors that shape individuals' perceptions of how they view the quality of their lives. From an applied perspective, the findings have implications for the development of organizational initiatives aimed at helping workers transition into retirement in such a way as to maintain high levels of subjective well-being.
The majority of research on -retirement income has focused on the level of support individuals receive (or can expect to receive) from pension programs, personal savings, and Social Security. This study was designed to complement that line of work by exploring the extent to which demographic factors (age, income gender, and educational background) are related workers' perceptions of financial stability in retirement. Results revealed that demographic variables were associated with individuals' perceptions of how difficult it will be to fund their retirement, and perceptions of the importance of income from personal savings, pension plans, Social Security, and family members. Findings are discussed in terms of how perceptions of income are related to income patterns experienced by cuuent retirees. Taken together, the results suggest the need to develop public policy initiatives and tailored retirement intervention programs that meet the needs of subgroups of American workers.
The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which individuals' knowledge of retirement planning, future time perspective, and financial risk tolerance influence retirement saving practices. A total of 270 young working adults participated in the study. Regression analyses reveal that each of the three variables is predictive of saving practices, and they interact with one another as well. From an applied perspective, the findings suggest that counseling and intervention efforts aimed at pro-moting retirement saving should differentially target individuals on the basis of these three psycho-logical dimensions.
Using multimethod data, we investigate retirement as a life stage centered on consumption, where cultural scripts are particularly contested and in flux and where we witness an increase in breadth and depth of identity‐related consumption, which we term consumer identity renaissance. While prior research on older consumers focuses on corporeal and cognitive decline and its impact on individual decision‐making situations, our attention is drawn to the competency and growth potential of those who have exited their formal productive stage and privilege consumption as a means to create and enact identity. Contrary to the received view of older consumers simply reviewing and integrating their already developed identities, we find retirement can be a time of extensive identity work with multiple revived and emergent inspirations weaving across all time orientations (past, present, and future) and involving intricate consumption enactments.
Little is known about the psychological mechanisms that underlie financial planning for retirement. Most studies of financial
planning and investing have used demographic indicators (e.g., age, gender, income) to predict individual differences in saving.
In the present study, a model of planning is tested in which psychological indicators (future time perspective, retirement
goal clarity, and self-rated financial knowledge) are posited to mediate the relationship between demographic indicators and
saving behaviors. Path-analytic techniques were used to test the model, based on data from 265 middle-aged working adults.
Analyses revealed substantial support for the role of psychological factors in the retirement planning process. Findings have
theoretical implications for the development of psychologically based models of planning, as well as applied implications
for those who seek to understand the psychomotivational forces that underlie tendencies to plan and save.
This study offers the life course paradigm as a viable framework for studying the onset and continuity of three preventive healthcare behaviors at different stages in life. The results reveal that life events experienced earlier in life significantly affect the likelihood of the onset of some certain behaviors and have a different impact on the risk of discontinuation of such a behavior at different life stages. The findings also support the notion that the longer people engage in a certain preventive healthcare activity, the more likely they are to continue that activity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
The results of a large-scale study of adolescent consumer socialization are presented. A general conceptual framework of socialization is outlined to serve as a blueprint for discussing variables and hypotheses in the specific context of consumer socialization. The authors then examine the development of several consumption-related skills as a function of variables derived from sociological and developmental theories of socialization.
Problems such as family disruption, mental illness, child abuse, and juvenile delinquency are often conceptualized as episodic events that define the success or failure of social intervention. This article examines the methodological problems associated with the analysis of event data by comparing five alternative statistical specifications: (1) multiple regression, (2) discriminant analysis, (3) logistic regression, (4) tobit regression, and (5) event history analysis. Each procedure is used to estimate risk factors for out-of-home placement among children in families that received intensive family preservation services. The accuracy and precision of models produced by each method are discussed. Implications for the analysis of event data are explored.
Can socioeconomic status in childhood influence desire for health coverage in adulthood? We develop and test a model that yielded two sets of findings across five experiments. First, people who grew up poor were generally less interested in health coverage compared to those who grew up wealthy. This effect was independent of people’s current level of socioeconomic status, emerged most strongly when adults were experiencing financial threat, and was mediated by differences in willingness to take risks between people from poor versus wealthy childhoods. Second, we show that this effect reverses when people are provided with base-rate information about disease. When information about the average likelihood of getting sick is made available, people who grew up poor were consistently more likely to seek health coverage than people who grew up wealthy. This effect was again strongest when people felt a sense of financial threat, and it was driven by people from poor versus wealthy childhoods differing in their perceptions of the likelihood of becoming sick. Overall, we show how, why, and when childhood socioeconomic status influences desire for health coverage.
Timing of the life crisis of widowhood was explored in terms of its long term effect on morale and the implications of this for counselors and educators. Data from a structured interview administered to Anglos, blacks, and Mexican-Americans aged 45 to 75 were analyzed. Age was related in a weak manner to morale among widowed Anglos and Mexican-Americans; these relations remained when the number of years the person had been widowed was controlled. Current availability of widowed peers, rather than the timing of the life event, appeared to be more important for morale among these widowed persons.
Lower-wage workers have always faced challenges in saving for their retirement years. As U.S. businesses increasingly adopt defined-contribution pension plans and emphasize individual responsibility and choice, what is the impact of this shift on the working poor? Lack of pension coverage is a significant concern because Social Security alone will not assure a comfortable retirement for lower-income workers. Our survey of more than 300 lower-wage service workers revealed that significant predictors of retirement savings behavior included greater financial literacy as well as greater job stability, stronger workforce attachment, and higher income. Employer-sponsored pension plans were the most frequently used savings option. Based on the findings, we explore the potential impacts of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) on lowerwage workers' retirement security and propose policy steps to reduce the risk of poverty being recycled into postretirement years.
Linking biographical, social and historical change is a long-standing objective within social psychology. Life-span research on human development, socialization and aging is renewing this tradition across the behavioral sciences under a different rubric-life course and life-span research. As yet, there is no internally consistent, interdisciplinary framework of concepts about developmental change in individuals and in organizational and cultural contexts that might guide the multi-level, multi-disciplinary study of these relationships. We suggest that a metatheoretical perspective, developmental contextualism, may provide an integrating framework. We note that recent controversies in psychology and sociology over definitions of development and the relative importance of ontogeny and socialization have neglected to model processes of biological, psychological and sociocultural change as interacting and leading to probabilistic rather than deterministic outcomes in a population. Based in developmental contextualism, we offer a model of human development as a person-population process. We present a method for distinguishing between behavioral change in general and probabilistic development over the lifespan, using duration-dependent rates of change as a necessary but not sufficient criterion. We identify different contexts of duration dependence, based on various forms of time-graded transitions: age grades, event grades, and history grades.
Major life changes and role transitions are often treated as stressors that create a generalized demand for adjustment by the individual. Empirically, however, these transitions have been shown to produce a wide range of effects on mental health. Two kinds of models have been proposed to explain this variation: differential access to coping resources for dealing with stressful situations, and variation in the characteristics of transitions, such as their undesirability, foreseeability, etc. This paper emphasizes a logically prior issue: the role context within which the transition event occurs, specifically, the level of pre-existing chronic stress in the social role. The model tested envisions life transition events as nonproblematic, or even beneficial to mental health, when preceded by chronic role problems--a case where more "stress" is actually relief from existing stress. Nine transition events are studied: job loss, divorce, pre-marital break-up, retirement, widowhood, children moving out of the house, first marriage, job promotion, and having a child. Results support the hypothesis that prior role stress reduces the impact of life transition events on mental health for seven of nine events, with some differences in impact by gender. The findings provide a basic framework for interpreting the effects of varying types of life transitions, and argue against the presumption that life transitions are inherently stressful, suggesting instead a need to specify prior social circumstances that determine whether or not a transition is potentially stressful.
Economic theory suggests that households should invest their financial wealth in a combination of cash and a well-diversified equity portfolio. Yet, many households' eq-uity investments are strongly concentrated in a few assets. Attempts to explain this discrepancy have included low levels of financial literacy and the absence of or misguided financial advice. In order to investigate these claims empirically, I construct detailed port-folios for the respondents to a Dutch household survey. The data allow me to estimate the portfolios' risk-return properties without resorting to assumptions about characteristics of specific asset classes. Controlling for a large number of covariates, my results show that the combination of low numerical-financial skills and not seeking advice from other persons is strongly associated with the largest expected losses from underdiversification, whereas financial knowledge does not seem to have an effect.
In recent years, several studies have produced data showing apparent changes in early adult life of psychological life trajectories, changes that have been labelled "turning points". The concept, and the phenomena that gave rise to it, are critically reviewed in relation to developmental psychopathology. It is concluded that a wide range of experiences have been associated with such changes; that the experiences associated with them span those over which the individual has no control and those subject to individual choice and actions; that the key features associated with change usually involve particular qualities of experiences as they impinge on subsegments of the population (rather than universal life phase transitions); that the experiences are not synonymous with stressful life events; and that changes in life trajectory may reflect genetic programming or internal biological alterations rather than external happenings. Also, major life experiences may accentuate, rather than alter, individual characteristics. It is concluded that turning point effects represent a heterogeneous range of lasting changes in psychological functioning. They are important because their investigation may shed important light on developmental processes. They do not represent a simple mechanism and hence there is no hypothesis about a particular process to test, but their study is nevertheless crucial for an understanding of developmental continuities and discontinuities. Some of the key methodological issues in their investigation are reviewed.
The life course has emerged over the past 30 years as a major research paradigm. Distinctive themes include the relation between human lives and a changing society, the timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, and human agency. Two lines of research converged in the formation of this paradigm during the 1960s; one was associated with an older "social relationship" tradition that featured intergenerational studies, and the other with more contemporary thinking about age. The emergence of a life course paradigm has been coupled with a notable decline in socialization as a research framework and with its incorporation by other theories. Also, the field has seen an expanding interest in how social change alters people's lives, an enduring perspective of sociological social psychology.
This study conducts a systematic age, period, and cohort analysis that provides new evidence of the dynamics of, and heterogeneity in, subjective well-being across the life course and over time in the United States. I use recently developed methodologies of hierarchical age-period-cohort models, and the longest available population data series on happiness from the General Social Survey, 1972 to 2004. I find distinct life-course patterns, time trends, and birth cohort changes in happiness. The age effects are strong and indicate increases in happiness over the life course. Period effects show first decreasing and then increasing trends in happiness. Baby-boomer cohorts report lower levels of happiness, suggesting the influence of early life conditions and formative experiences. I also find substantial life-course and period variations in social disparities in happiness. The results show convergences in sex, race, and educational gaps in happiness with age, which can largely be attributed to differential exposure to various social conditions important to happiness, such as marital status and health. Sex and race inequalities in happiness declined in the long term over the past 30 years. During the most recent decade, however, the net sex difference disappeared while the racial gap in happiness remained substantial.
This study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to analyze the psychological and social variables associated with financial literacy. The HRS is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of individuals older than age 50 and their spouses. An ordinary least squares linear regression analysis explores the relationship between financial literacy and several economic and psychosocial variables. After controlling for earnings, level of education, and other socioeconomic variables in this exploratory study, I find that financial satisfaction and religiosity are correlated with financial literacy.
the life course: as field, concept, and paradigm / stress, situations, and social structure [emergence of scientific studies of stress, sociological contributions to stress research, setting the stage for a life course view of social stress] / stressful events over the life course / life course applications [major themes in caregiving research] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
reviews the similarities and differences related to theory, methodology, and intervention in the perspectives of child psychologists and life-span developmentalists
brief review of advances in methodology addressed to issues of cohort effects and contextualism is presented as an exemplar of the intermeshing of theoretical and methodological concerns of life-span scholars
view of development as a life long process, issues of gains (growth) and losses (decline) in development, propositions related to age-graded, non-normative and history-graded influences on development, and the emphasis on organismic-contextualism
possible applications of the life-span perspective to strategies in intervention are examined (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
One area of consumption disorders receiving a great deal of attention lately is compulsive buying. Researchers have begun moving from descriptive studies of this phenomenon to attempts to explain some of its causal mechanisms. One possible explanation is that such behavior may serve as a way of self-medicating depression and negative affect for compulsive buyers. This study examines reported mood states prior to and during shopping for 24 compulsive buyers and a matched comparison group. The findings indicated that relative to the comparison group, the compulsive buyers reported feeling most of the mood states more frequently prior to going shopping, especially the more negative moods. Compulsive buyers also more frequently experienced extreme moods (both positive and negative), while shopping than did the comparison group. When within-subject differences were examined for preshopping and shopping moods, compulsive buyers were more likely to move from negative to positive moods, whereas the opposite was true for the comparison group. The findings suggest that compulsive buyers may be using buying behavior to manage undesirable mood states. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This study explored one mechanism through which acute disaster stress (injury, life threat, property damage, loss) may produce lasting psychological distress (depression, anxiety, somatization, hostility). More specifically, the study examined the mediating roles of seven domains of chronic stress (marital, parental, filial, financial, occupational, ecological, physical) within a sample of 930 disaster victims and controls. The results provided strong support for the hypothesis that chronic stress mediates the long-term effects of acute disaster stress on psychological distress. The main effects of loss, though limited in strength, were completely explained by victims’ higher financial, marital, filial, and physical stress. The effects of injury, though quite strong, were largely mediated by these same domains of chronic stress. Likewise, the effects of life threat were largely mediated by all these domains plus ecological stress. A mediational model was not appropriate for understanding the consequences of property damage because it did not exhibit a main effect on psychological distress.
This paper was motivated by the growing literature that suggests that individuals fail to conform to rational economic behaviour when it comes to saving for retirement. A review of the relevant literature confirmed that many individuals fail to save for retirement in a rational way as prescribed by the Modigliani and Brumberg (1954) economic life-cycle model. Numerous studies show that many individuals exhibit irrational behaviour when it comes to planning and saving for retirement. The literature review identified that exposure to financial education programs can positively influence the planning and savings behaviour of retirement fund members.
The life course paradigm has replaced child-based, growth-oriented (“ontogenetic”) accounts of the person with models that emphasize the timing, social context, and organization of lives from birth to death. The chapter begins with a story of this intellectual change from the thematic precursors of life course studies to the present. The next section identifies heuristic concepts that capture the dynamic properties of settings and contextualize the individual, including social pathways, the cumulation of experiences, trajectories and transitions, and turning points. The life course paradigm also offers core principles that link social change and developmental trajectories, including those of life-span development, human agency, timing, linked lives, and historical time and place. In combination, these principles represent key contributions to the study of human development. They establish development as a life-long phenomenon that includes aging into late adulthood; to highlight the agentic nature of people as they create and shape their settings within limits; view development as the confluence of age, the generations, and history; and situate each person's trajectory in terms of family, neighborhood, community, and society. Life course insights have been especially revealing in research on health, and offer great promise in the study of biology, experience, and adjustment.
Keywords:
social pathways;
birth cohorts;
contexts of human development;
developmental and social trajectories;
historical change;
transitions
Since the average ages of many industrialized nations' workers are increasing, it is important to know (1) the causes of employees' decisions to retire early and (2) the effects of retirement on the lives of retirees and on their employing organizations. The fields of gerontology and of social, clinical, and developmental psychology have investigated retirement, usually focusing on individual well-being as a criterion. Industrial/organizational psychology generally has not delved into the topic. A review of the empirical literature and theories regarding the two retirement issues leads to conclusions that are very tentative due to the nature of the research methods used until now. I/O psychologists have the opportunity to contribute to knowledge about retirement because of their dual interests in both individuals and organizations and because of their tradition of scientific rigor. Propositions are provided for future research.
Although stress research has received increased attention in the behavioral and social sciences, it has been virtually ignored
by marketing researchers. This paper attempts to advance the stress perspective as a useful framework in consumer research.
First, the author presents theoretical and conceptual foundations of stress research. Second, the author develops a general
conceptual model of the causes and consequences of stress on the basis of theory and research. The model serves as a blueprint
for presenting theory and research on stress, organizing and interpreting findings of consumer studies in the context of stress
theory, and developing propositions for needed research. Finally, the author provides a research agenda to guide future studies
in this area.
Today, the life course perspective is perhaps the pre-eminent theoretical orientation in the study of lives, but this has
not always been the case. The life histories and future trajectories of individuals and groups were largely neglected by early
sociological research. In the pioneering study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-1920), W. I. Thomas (with Florian Znaniecki) first made use of such histories and trajectories and argued strongly that they be
investigated more fully by sociologists. By the mid-1920s, Thomas was emphasizing the vital need for a “longitudinal approach
to life history” using life record data (Volkart, 1951, p. 593). He advocated that studies investigate “many types of individuals with regard to their experiences and various past periods
of life in different situations” and follow “groups of individuals into the future, getting a continuous record of experiences
as they occur.” Though this advice went unheeded for decades, Thomas’s early recommendations anticipated study of the life
course and longitudinal research that has become such a central part of modern sociology and other disciplines.