The Use of the Intensive Longitudinal Methods to Study Financial Well-Being: A Scoping Review and Future Research Agenda

Physiological Effects of Psychological Interventions Among Persons with Financial Stress: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Introduction to Psychophysiological Economics

It is known that economic problems can cause psychological stress, and that psychological stress causes physiological changes often linked to disease. Here we report a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on physiological effects of psychological treatment for individuals with economic problems. Of 5071 papers in our initial PsycInfo search, we identified 16 papers on physiological effects for psychological treatment of the economically stressed. We found 11 controlled studies, among which we found a small to moderate significant effect size, Hedges' g = 0.319, p < 0.001. The largest effect sizes were found for heart rate variability and measures of inflammation, and the smallest for measures involving cortisol. The studies were all on chronically poor populations, thus restricting generalization to other financially stressed populations such as students, athletes in training, and those stressed by relative deprivation compared with neighbors or other reference groups. None of the studies examined effects of these psychophysiological changes on disease susceptibility, and none included elements of financial planning. The nascent field of financial psychophysiology calls for more research in these areas. Even so, results suggest that financially stressed people can benefit physiologically from psychological stress management methods.

Financial Behavioral Health and Investment Risk Willingness: Implications for the Racial Wealth Gap

Financial behavioral health (FBH) influences numerous socio-ecological domains, affecting investment risk willingness and consequent wealth levels. The experience of FBH by racial group is unknown, and findings of differences between Black and White investors' risk willingness are mixed. The study's aims are to establish an FBH measure and explore its application to risk willingness by racial group. The study used a subset of data from FINRA's 2018 National Financial Capability Study, including Black (n = 2835) and White (n = 21,289) respondents. Through factor analysis, 19 items were confirmed for the FBH measure; the measure was then applied to investment risk willingness using structural equation modeling (SEM). Invariance analyses showed that the FBH model had an excellent fit for White respondents but not Black respondents. The SEM analysis determined that FBH accounted for 37% of the variance in risk willingness (R² = 0.368; β = 0.256, p < 0.001). Racial group affiliation was a negligible predictor of risk willingness (β = -0.084, p < 0.001). This project contributes an empirical basis for FBH, emphasizes the importance of FBH for investment risk willingness, and elucidates that racial group differences in risk willingness could be an unlikely contributor to the wealth gap.