FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING ABILITIES AND FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION IN OLDER AFRICAN AMERICANS: PRELIMINARY VALIDITY EVIDENCE FOR THE LICHTENBERG FINANCIAL DECISION RATING SCALE (LFDRS)

Elder financial victimization is a growing problem facing older Americans. As the conduits of financial transactions, financial firms are positioned to stop losses at their source. Representatives at small and large firms were interviewed to describe their financial exploitation training and prevention programs, their detection and response protocols, and how they balance the goals of client protection with the client’s right to autonomy and privacy in financial decision making. Representatives from regulatory agencies were interviewed to describe the interventions firms are authorized to engage in, the legal barriers they face, and recent rule change proposals that may overcome some of these barriers.

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Context Matters: Financial, Psychological, and Relationship Insecurity Around Personal Finance Is Associated With Financial Exploitation

The Gerontologist ◽

10.1093/geront/gnaa020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 60 (6) ◽

pp. 1040-1049 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Peter A Lichtenberg ◽

Rebecca Campbell ◽

LaToya Hall ◽

Evan Z Gross

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Construct Validity ◽

Area Under The Curve ◽

Financial Decision Making ◽

Financial Exploitation ◽

Final Sample ◽

Financial Decision ◽

Current Sample ◽

Neurocognitive Measures ◽

Financial Awareness

Abstract Background and Objectives Context can influence or overwhelm the intellectual and cognitive aspects of financial decision making but has only recently received increased attention. The construct validity of conceptual subscales from a financial decision-making scale was examined in the context of their relationship to financial exploitation. Research Design and Methods Two hundred forty-two community-based participants were recruited into the study. The final sample contained 242 participants. Measures included demographic variables, conceptually derived contextual items, and neurocognitive measures. Seventeen of the 34 contextual items investigated differentiated financially exploited and nonexploited older adults. Combining these 17 contextual items led to the creation of a new scale: the Financial Exploitation Vulnerability Scale (FEVS). Correlational analyses and area under the curve analyses were used to examine the relationship between this new scale of contextual items and other measures and to determine how clinically meaningful the scale was in the current sample. Results Contextual items were powerful discriminators between those who were exploited and those who were not. The new scale of contextual items (the FEVS) demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.82) and a strong area under the curve (receiver operating characteristic = 0.80), thereby indicating good clinical significance and evidence for construct validity. Discussion and Implications We examined the conceptually derived subscales of financial awareness, psychological vulnerability, and relationship strain and how these relate to financial exploitation. Our major finding is that contextual items differentiated between exploited and nonexploited adults, which demonstrate the importance of measuring context in financial decision making and exploitation. A new scale for measuring contextual items was introduced.

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The Lichtenberg Financial Decision Screening Scale (LFDSS): A new tool for assessing financial decision making and preventing financial exploitation

Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect ◽

10.1080/08946566.2016.1168333 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 134-151 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Peter A. Lichtenberg ◽

Lisa Ficker ◽

Analise Rahman-Filipiak ◽

Ron Tatro ◽

Cynthia Farrell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Financial Decision Making ◽

Financial Exploitation ◽

Financial Decision ◽

Screening Scale

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CLINICAL UTILITY OF THE LICHTENBERG FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING RATING SCALE

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igy023.2495 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (suppl_1) ◽

pp. 670-670

Author(s):

E Gross ◽

A Rahman-Filipiak ◽

L Ficker ◽

P Lichtenberg

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Clinical Utility ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Financial Decision Making ◽

Financial Decision

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Self-awareness for Financial Decision Making Abilities Is Linked to Right Temporal Cortical Thickness in Older Adults

10.21203/rs.3.rs-227286/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Preeti Sunderaraman ◽

Seonjoo Lee ◽

Eleanna Varangis ◽

Christian Habeck ◽

Silvia Chapman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Decision Making ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Community Dwelling ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Financial Decision Making ◽

Financial Exploitation ◽

Memory Awareness ◽

Financial Decision ◽

Financial Awareness

Abstract Everyday financial decision making and the awareness of the integrity of one’s financial decision making abilities (or financial awareness) are both critical to study in older adults as they can help identify those at risk for making suboptimal financial decisions and prevent financial loss. In the current study, we examined the cognitive and cortical thickness correlates of financial decision making and financial awareness in 59 community-dwelling participants co-enrolled in a larger study (mean age=68.35 years (SD=5.5), mean education=15.91 (SD=2.36), 61% = women, 67% = White). Data from standardized measures of financial decision making and cognition was investigated along with FreeSurfer derived thickness regions. Based on metacognitive frameworks, financial awareness was measured along with a well-validated measure of memory awareness. Results revealed that numeracy, executive functioning and vocabulary were associated with financial decision making, whereas in analysis adjusted for financial decision making, memory awareness relative to cognition was most strongly linked to financial awareness. No significant associations between thickness and financial decision making were found. However, both financial and memory awareness were associated with the same right-hemisphere temporal thickness regions underscoring the idea of a common substrate of awareness. Interestingly, our findings converge with the emerging work on financial exploitation in which the right sided temporal regions have been found to play a prominent role. Incorporating the contributing role of self-awareness in various models of financial exploitation will be an important consideration for future studies.

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