Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Financial Capability Score (FCS). We use the FCS to evaluate the impact of our program on specific financial behaviors that were encouraged through our digital learning experience. This measure was developed by Collins and O’Rourke (2013), and it is a useful measure of six specific behaviors: having a budget/spending plan, feeling confident about achieving a financial goal, feeling confident about covering an unexpected expense, having an automatic deposit for saving, having living expenses lower than total income, and not being charged a late fee or loan. Higher values represent more desirable financial behaviors.
Financial Self-Efficacy Score (FSES). We use the six-item FSES developed by Lown (2011) to measure how program participants feel about managing financial problems. This measure helps gauge the ability of an individual to address financial challenges through activating mental resources, motivation and taking specific actions to accomplish specific tasks related to managing personal finances on a scale from 1 (exactly true) to 4 (not at all true). An example question is as follows: “When faced with a financial challenge, I have a hard time figuring out a solution.”
Financial Stress Indicator (FSI). We use the FSI to evaluate the impact of our program on financial stress levels. This indicator, which was developed by the Financial Health Network (Dunn et al., 2022), measures whether participants have experienced financial stress in the previous month, i.e., “Over the last month, how much stress, if any, did your finances cause you?”. Response options to this indicator included no stress, some stress, moderate stress, and high stress.
Financial Stress Impacts. Two subscales of the financial strain survey (Aldana & Liljenquist, 1998) were used to assessed the extent to which financial stressors were impacting the physical health and relationship well-being of participants on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always). The physical health subscale consisted of four items, e.g., “Do you ever get headaches from worry over money matters?”. The relationships subscale consisted of four items as well, e.g., “I tend to argue with others about money”.
Sleep Quality. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)-Brief is a six-item scale used to assess sleep duration, time taken to fall asleep (sleep latency), number of undesired awakenings, and sleep quality (Sancho-Domingo et al., 2021). It is a reliable, valid measure with sensitivity and specificity for identifying poor sleepers and convergences with other sleep measures (Sancho-Domingo et al., 2021).