Demographic characteristics influencing financial wellbeing: a multigroup analysis

PurposeThe study attempts to understand the factors impacting the financial wellbeing of IT employees in India using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). It utilizes well-established survey instruments to assess the impact of financial literacy, financial behaviour and financial stress on financial wellbeing. The study also attempts to understand the role of demographic factors (age, gender, monthly income, job category and work experience) in determining financial wellbeing through multigroup analysis.Design/methodology/approachStructured equation modelling (SEM) is used to study the link between the determinants. The study also attempts to understand the role of demographic factors (age, gender, monthly income, job category and work experience) in determining financial wellbeing through multigroup analysis. Data used for the analysis covers 237 employees working in the IT sector.FindingsWhile financial literacy and financial behaviour have a significant positive impact on financial wellbeing, financial stress has a significant negative impact. Financial behaviour and financial stress were found to have a mediating role in the relationship between financial literacy and financial wellbeing. The demographic variables significantly moderate the relationship between the factors leading to financial wellbeing.Originality/valueThe results show the need for financial wellbeing programs to focus on enhancing financial knowledge and improving financial planning. Further, it suggests offering customized financial wellbeing programs based on the employee's demographic characteristics rather than following a “one program, fits all” approach.

We’re all in this together: Focus on community attenuates effects of pandemic-related financial hardship on reactance to COVID-19 public health regulations

There has been resistance to COVID-19 public health restrictions partly due to changes and reductions in work, resulting in financial stress. Psychological reactance theory posits that such restrictions to personal freedoms result in anger, defiance, and motivation to restore freedom. In an online study (N = 301), we manipulated the target of COVID-19 restrictions as impacting self or community. We hypothesized that (a) greater pandemic-related financial stress would predict greater reactance, (b) the self-focused restriction condition would elicit greater reactance than the community-focused restriction condition, (c) reactance would be greatest for financially-stressed individuals in the self-focused condition, and (d) greater reactance would predict lower adherence to social distancing guidelines. Independent of political orientation and sense of community, greater financial stress predicted greater reactance only in the self-focused condition; the community-focused condition attenuated this association. Additionally, greater reactance was associated with lower social distancing behavior. These findings suggest that economic hardship exacerbates negative responses to continued personal freedom loss. Community-focused COVID-19 health messaging may be better received during continued pandemic conditions.

Financial stress effects on financial markets: dynamic connectedness and portfolio hedging

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of financial stress on the dynamic connectedness and hedging for oil market and stock-bond markets of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the wavelet coherence model to examine the interactions between financial stress, oil and GCC stock and bond markets. Second, the authors apply the time–frequency connectedness developed by Barunik and Krehlik (2018) so as to identify the direction and scale connectedness among these markets. Third, the authors examine the optimal weights, hedge ratio and hedging effectiveness for oil and financial markets based on constant conditional correlation (CCC), dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) and Baba-Engle-Kraft-Kroner (BEKK)-GARCH models.FindingsThe authors have found that the correlation between the oil and stock-bond markets tends to be stable in nonshock periods, but it evolves during oil and financial shocks at lower frequencies. Moreover, the authors find that the oil market and financial stress are the main transmitters of risks. The connectedness is mainly driven by the long term, demonstrating that the markets rapidly process the financial stress spillover effect, and the shock is transmitted over the long run. Optimal weights show different patterns for each negative and positive case of the financial stress index. In the negative (positive) financial stress case, investors should have more oil (stocks) than stocks (oil) in their portfolio in order to minimize risk.Originality/valueThis study has gone some way toward enhancing one’s understanding of the time–frequency connectedness between the financial stress, oil and GCC stock-bond markets. Second, it identifies the impact of financial stress into hedging strategies offering important insights for investors aiming at managing and reducing portfolio risk.

COVID-19: Financial Stress and Well-Being in Families

In all areas of knowledge, research has shown the devastating effects of COVID-19, and the impact on families’ financial stress and well-being is one of them. Crises are predictors of families’ financial stress as they produce changes in their income and negative feelings, such as fear and demotivation, which affect well-being. This study analyses the financial and social impact of COVID-19 on families, supported by the ABCE-WB model, with data collection being the result of snowball sampling. The results obtained allow the conclusion that the current pandemic crisis has caused financial stress in families, to a greater or lesser degree, and caused feelings of fear and demotivation as consequences of the general lockdown. The empirical evidence also shows that these effects are positively associated with the perception of their level of well-being. The contribution of the study lies in corroborating the model used. Final considerations are presented together with the limitations and suggestions for future research.

Stressful Family Contexts and Health in Divorced and Married Mothers

Using prospective data over 25 years from a sample of 416 women, the first objective of the current study was to investigate the biopsychosocial process over the second-half of the life course comparing mothers with diferent marital histories. The second objective was to investigate this biopsychosocial process for 296 maried mothers focusing on their marital quality over middle years. The results suggested that, compared to being married, divorcing in early-midlife launched an adverse biopsychosocial process for women leading to physical pain, physical limitations, and depressive symptoms over their mid-later years, largely through early-midlife financial stress, regardless of later recoupling. However, subsequent financial stress did not influence divorced mothers’ later-life health problems, suggesting their development of resilience. For consistently married mothers, both marital stress and financial stress uniquely influenced all three health problems throughout their mid-later years. For all mothers, these health problems progressed over mid-later years, as indicated through their stabilities and mutual influences, and these health problems also selected mothers into further escalating financial and marital stress over their mid-later years. Elucidating differential short- and long-term health influences of marital and financial stressors for divorced and married mothers provides a potentially useful information for targeted early preventive intervention efforts and policy formation. Such interventions can promote and develop resiliency factors, thereby aiding middle-aged mothers to prevent from adverse biopsychosocial processes.