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Financial threat is defined as fearful-anxious uncertainty regarding one’s current and future financial situation. The purpose of this paper is to examine predictors and outcomes of financial threat in two samples of students who completed an online questionnaire for course credit. The theoretical model the authors proposed tested the association between personal debt, anxiety, and economic hardship with financial threat, and in turn, financial threat’s relationship with willingness to change financial behavior (e.g. increase income, cut expenses, and reduce debt), job search activity, and psychological distress. Consistent across samples, structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the data fit the model and supported all four hypotheses. Debt, economic hardship, and anxiety were all related positively to financial threat, which itself related positively to willingness to change, job search, and psychological distress. Importantly, financial threat mediated the relationship between these economic-situational predictors and affective-behavioral outcomes of financial stain. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Using an online questionnaire, participants completed measures of economic hardship, intolerance of uncertainty, job search behavior, financial threat, life satisfaction, general health, perceived stress, and willingness to change to financial behavior. The authors developed and tested a model that explores emotional and cognitive reactions to financial stressors following the recession.

Results of SEM revealed that the data fit the model and no modification indices were suggested. Examination of parameter estimates indicated that total debt, economic hardship, and anxiety were positively related to financial threat. Financial threat, in turn, positively related to willingness to change one’s financial behaviors, job search, and psychological distress. In addition, economic hardship and anxiety were positively related to psychological distress. That is, individuals who were feeling more threatened by their financial situation were more willing to change their financial situation and were more likely to engage in job search behavior. They were also more likely to report more psychological distress than individuals reporting lower levels of financial threat.

This study was cross-sectional and therefore precludes causal interpretations of the findings. Longitudinal data with repeated assessments of all measures would help determine the direction of causation. Also, the study relied on self-report data, which is prone to bias. For example, it is possible that some participants did not know their exact debt levels, which may have resulted in an under- or overestimation of debt levels. Future research should extend this line of research using objective measures. While the model tested in this study examined the impact of economic factors on perceived threat, behavior, and psychological distress, it did not include social and psychological resources. For example, the authors did not include measures of social support, coping, or personality, which may moderate the impact of economic variables and stress on psychological distress. Although financial knowledge/literacy was not studied here, future research could include it since it has been associated with a variety of financial behaviors such as cash-flow management, credit management, saving, and investing. There is some evidence that financial literacy can decrease emotional stress and anxiety (Vitt et al., 2000).

The current study can help researchers and practitioners understand the concept of financial threat among university students. For example, if students have incurred student loans and debt and begin displaying symptoms of distress, like anxiousness, worry, and irritability, they could be referred to a professional experienced in working with emotional and behavioral disorders related to financial issues. It can also help practitioners gain an understanding and insight into clients’ poor financial decision making. Government could initiate programs that help individuals cope with the negative effects of unemployment. Given that young people are experiencing disproportionately high unemployment that can have a lasting adverse effect on employment prospects and future earnings, the current post-secondary curriculum needs to prepare young people for the world of work, and gain a footing in the labor market. One way to achieve this is through high-quality work experiences (e.g. internships/apprenticeships). Identifying ways to mitigate the effects of debt and economic hardship is also imperative. For example, money and debt advice may improve one’s financial circumstances, which, in turn, may improve their physical and psychological well-being.

Future studies could focus on developing models predicting to financial stress using personality, psychological resources, and an objective measure of financial knowledge. Despite these limitations, this research demonstrates how emotional factors need to be included in economic models that also include debt and economic hardship. The study contributes to the economic and psychological literature by documenting how economic hardship and debt influence perceptions of threat, planned behavior, and psychological distress. The authors take a unique approach to describing economic hardship and financial threat as antecedents of distress, job search, and willingness to change. Future research could be directed toward employing the model for predicting behavior that would lessen economic stress and thereby leading to increased psychological well-being.

The study develops and tests an original theoretical model linking financial, emotional, and psychological variable in a comprehensive framework that is then tested empirically. This model is original with this paper.

Aging has detrimental effects on elders due to their physical health and financial hardship. Elders face neglect, insult and abuse in society due to causes related to physical health and financial issue from caregivers. This study aims to identify the measures of physical health and financial hardship and classifies elders under neglect, insult and abuse categories.

The propositions of existence and classifying elders under neglect, insult and abuse categories were tested by using discriminant analysis and their profiling was done by perceptual mapping technique.

The elder neglect category identified as a prominent category due to physical health while elder insult and abuse were caused by physical health and financial hardship both. The present study portrays the multi-dimensional facets related to elders’ ill-treatment. The elder’s ill-treatment categories were profiled to imply the measure of elevating elders’ dignity and care at a personal level and society at large.

This study classifies elders under neglect, insult and abuse categories. This classification may facilitate the medical practitioners, academicians and government and non-government social welfare agencies in understanding elder abuse with new perspectives.

This paper examines several measures of poverty and hardship for the United States to illustrate how a single measure of poverty may identify different groups of people as “in need.” Individuals and families may encounter difficulty meeting needs on many dimensions and there are a variety of measures designed to identify those who experience poverty or difficulty making ends meet. In general, there is agreement that all of the approaches capture different pieces of the puzzle while no single indicator can yield a complete picture. To understand this multidimensional aspect of poverty, several measures are examined in this paper: the official U.S. poverty measure, a relative poverty measure, a new supplemental measure that follows recommendations of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), an index of material hardship, a measure of household debt, and responses to a question about inability to meet expenses. This study uses the 2008 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and updates a similar analysis that used the 1996 panel of SIPP (Short, 2005). The SIPP is a longitudinal survey that allows us to examine all of these various indicators for the same people over the period from 2009 to 2010. The study uses regression analysis to assess the relationship among several indicators of economic hardship. Results suggest that an understanding of relationships between various indicators can allow only one indicator of poverty alone to be interpreted more appropriately and used more wisely to target the needs of the disadvantaged.

What makes managers choose to continue taking classes and seminars to further their management development? In the past twenty years, motivated and behavioural theory has been applied to the career decision‐making process in management development. Two approaches, expectancy theory and, to a lesser extent, justification processes have been investigated. The major difference between the two approaches is that expectancy theory suggests that managers are primarily forward‐looking in their careers and management development, whereas justification takes the position that managers attempt to make present career behaviours consistent with past career actions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a mapping of financial distress among consumers in Zimbabwe. To inform policy, it nuances the understanding of the level of financial distress and the precise location of the most distressed consumers in the country.

The study mapped financial distress among consumers on the ten provinces of Zimbabwe using credit repayment behavioural indicators from retail consumer loans data.

Findings showed widespread financial distress among consumers across the country with Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces being the most affected, whilst Harare and Manicaland were better off. The study underscores the urgent need for an overhaul of the Zimbabwe’s haemorrhaging economy in order to restore dignity among consumers and relieve them of financial hardships.

The paper provides vital input for policy. Policy measures aimed at invigorating sustained economic growth, troubleshooting and revamping productivity, enhancing external competitiveness and creating employment across the country are desperately needed. Also, there is need for a functional consumer education and counselling entity to roll-out financial literacy programmes and counselling financially distressed obligors across this economically beleaguered country.

Centres on measuring lodging operator compliance with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The intent was to measure current level of physical compliance with the ADA; future plans in meeting or exceeding ADA requirements; and barriers which impeded complete compliance. The participants in this study were selected from a list of hotels and motels contained in the 1994 version of the Hotel and Travel Index. The lodging operations were represented by full service, limited service and economy properties which varied from 25 to 615 guest rooms per property, restaurant, and meeting facilities. The findings of this study suggested that total compliance has not been achieved in certain areas, vagueness of the legislation is not necessarily a barrier in compliance, and financial constraints are a barrier in non‐compliance. Implies that lodging operators must properly position their products and services, otherwise the disabled travellers’ needs will not be totally met, and that lodging operators need to continue their civic respon‐ sibility for meeting the needs of the disabled travellers’ needs.

The purpose of this paper is to articulate the mandate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not least in promoting a sound legal regulatory environment for markets to operate globally and its inherent challenges. While acknowledging the plausible work done by the IMF in supporting countries to achieve their macro-economic stability, the paper articulates some of its shortcomings as a global institution. It is evident that the post-war climate in which the World Bank and IMF were created has drastically changed – which presupposes that these institutions now need to reposition themselves to reflect on contemporary global challenges accordingly. The author has argued in the past that a robust regulatory system should be devised taking into account the dynamic challenges in the market environment but also to prevent them from happening again.

The paper has utilized empirical evidence to evaluate the mandate of the IMF in addressing its dynamic challenges such as the global financial and debt crises in Europe and the USA and prevention of financial sector abuse globally. The IMF is one of the Bretton Woods Institutions charged with the oversight responsibility to enforce policies and enable countries to manage their macro-economic challenges efficiently.

The findings demonstrate that the IMF is as relevant and important as it was when it was created in 1945. However, there is a need for intrinsic and structural changes within this institution to continue discharging its mandate in a changed global regulatory landscape. The IMF is still crucial in fostering a fundamental stabilization function to fragile global economies in areas of financial and technical assistance, and developing requisite legal and supervisory infrastructure within fledging member countries.

The paper was written by analysis of both theoretical and empirical data largely based on secondary data sources. It would have been better to first present the findings in an international conference to solicit wide views and internalize them accordingly.

While acknowledging the plausible work done by the IMF and its counterpart the World Bank in facilitating global financial markets regulation and prevention of financial sector abuse, as oversight institutions, they need to constantly review their mandate to respond robustly to their dynamic challenges such as the global and debt crises and financial sector abuse. Oversight institutions need to constantly review and adapt their mandate accordingly, if they are to discharge their varied responsibilities efficiently. They cannot stand still in the face of challenges because they will be superseded and kept at a back foot.

Markets and states are embedded in each other, and the way they are regulated is of a significant importance to varied stakeholders and people.

This paper is one of its kind, is unique in its character and evaluates embedded issues using empirical evidence in a way not done in its context before. Secondary data sources have been evaluated to achieve a thoughtful analysis of the objectives of the paper.

While epidemiological studies have linked economic hardship and financial difficulties with psychological distress and suicide, investigation of financial concerns among users of public mental health services has been limited. Moreover, empirical data regarding a relationship between financial difficulties and mental health symptoms are lacking. The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of financial difficulties among patients attending community mental health clinics, and to examine the relationship between such difficulties and psychological distress and suicidality.

Participants attending three community mental health clinics in British Columbia, Canada provided demographic information, including annual income, and completed brief measures of personal financial management, psychological distress and suicidal behavior.

Although more than half of participants reported good-to-excellent ability to pay their bills on time, nearly half indicated poor long-range saving and financial planning. Lower annual income was directly related to suicidality. Financial management difficulties were associated with psychological distress, and were significantly related to suicidality after controlling for the effects of income and psychological distress.

The findings highlight the need for attention to distress and suicidality as potential sequelae of financial management difficulties, and carry implications for further research, clinical intervention and social policy. The findings confirm the need to address financial needs and money management abilities among users of public mental health services.

The America Rescue Plan (ARP) transformed the Child Tax Credit (CTC) into a more generous, inclusive monthly payment from July through December 2021. However, the expansion has been terminated and the annual CTC has been reinstated. The United States is one of the few OECD countries that do not have a child allowance system and South Korea has recently adopted child allowance in 2018. This study aims to comprehensively review the existing literature and evidence on ARP-CTC in the United States and Universal Child Allowance (CA) in Korea.

The researchers completed a database search between July 1, 2022 and July 20, 2022. For the United States, the search keywords were child tax credit OR expanded child tax credit OR CTC OR child allowance. For Korea, the search keyword was child allowance. Searches were conducted using 79 databases. A total of 36 US studies and 7 Korean studies met all the inclusion criteria and proceeded to the extraction process. A narrative thematic synthesis approach was employed to identify themes in the findings. The results were organized based on the characteristics of the studies and the post-intervention outcomes.

Studies in the United States focused primarily on economic outcomes, including poverty and material hardship, reflecting the concern policymakers and researchers have about child poverty. On the other hand, Korean studies examined employment, economic well-being, psychological well-being and expenditures in a relatively balanced share. Overall, studies found that both ARP-Child Tax Credits and Universal Child Allowance reduced child poverty and improved material hardship. Also, studies in both countries suggested that both policies had positive impacts on parental psychological well-being.

To the authors knowledge, this paper is the first to comprehensively review the impact of the US ARP-CTC in comparison with the Korean child allowance. Two studies reviewed and updated the literature on US ARP-CTC as a round-up paper. Moreover, the authors conduct cross-national comparative analyses between the United States and Korea. The contexts of the child allowance system in the two nations have both similarities and differences, thereby offering a unique opportunity for a comparative study.

Financial anxiety has become a global concern and a growing research area with significant potential to contribute to the behavioral and personal finance literature. Despite this, the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. Prior studies vary greatly in the breadth of definitions and measures of financial anxiety. There has been no systematic evaluation of literature on financial anxiety antecedents, consequences, and coping strategies. This systematic review fills this gap.

We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched Scopus and Web of Science and identified 55 eligible studies published between 2009 and 2024.

Financial anxiety is defined and measured differently in different research domains. We identified several antecedents, including socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, income, employment, racial background, and language proficiency), personality traits, compulsive and impulsive buying behavior, depression or other mental issues, family health issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic and consequences of financial anxiety, including psychological and psychic health, societal and personal relations, financial behavior and well-being, and job-related outcomes. In addition, the literature presents six financial anxiety coping strategies (self-imposed coping mechanisms, spiritual and theological resources, increased financial capability, social and family support, seeking professional help, and language proficiency training). Several future research directions are presented.

This review represents the first systematic compilation and evaluation of the research findings on financial anxiety.