4098 - A COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR FINANCIAL RESILIENCE: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL, RELATIONAL, AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

Session: 4094 - RETHINKING FINANCIAL LITERACY: FROM CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS TO BEHAVIORAL AND EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS
AUTHORS:
Robba Matteo (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ~ Milan ~ Italy)
Abstract text:
Financial resilience could be defined as individuals' ability to successfully overcome financial shocks and navigate periods of financial adversity. However, literature still does not recognize financial resilience as a multidimensional phenomenon, which depends on factors that are either internal or external to the individual. Indeed, in addition to economic resources, psychological or social factors could also shape how individuals face financial challenges. Building on this gap, a multidimensional framework of financial resilience is proposed, recognizing that personal (e.g., ego-resiliency), relational (e.g., social capital), and contextual (e.g., access to emergency funds) factors jointly influence how people react and adapt to financial hardships. For research purposes, a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was performed to explore how dynamic interactions and configurations of the three systems can differently influence financial worries and psychological well-being. A sample of German financially vulnerable households was considered (N = 999; 48.5% females; Mage = 48.22 years, SDage = 10.50). Subsequently, once the clusters were identified, a multivariate general linear model was run to identify which profile(s) reported higher financial worry and psychological well-being. Four clusters were identified through the LPA, representing different configurations of the resilience resources considered in the analysis. Significant differences among profiles for both financial worry and psychological well-being were also found. Specifically, regardless of access to financial resources, individuals who can rely on personal or relational resources generally report higher well-being and lower worry about their financial situation. Our results suggest that financial resilience is not solely a matter of households' material aspects (i.e., financial resources). Different types of resources can impact how individuals react to financial shocks. These findings underscore the importance of adopting a systemic perspective of financial resilience to understand how individuals face financial adversities.