@article{a9bd8bfedad54871baaf7ed2b6e7b5ca,
title = "Personality and young adult financial distress",
abstract = "Researchers have become increasingly interested in understanding the sources of heterogeneity in individual financial behaviors. In this paper, we examine how the Big Five personality traits are related to measures of young adults' financial distress. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health in the United States, we find that conscientiousness is negatively correlated, and neuroticism positively correlated with financial distress. These correlations are robust to controlling for early life background and other demographic and socioeconomic factors. Young adulthood sets the stage for financial security in later life; as such, this study provides insight for lifelong financial wellbeing. Based on the empirical results, we discuss potential behavioral and policy interventions that can be used to improve financial wellbeing.",
keywords = "Conscientiousness, Financial distress, Neuroticism, Personality traits",
author = "Yilan Xu and Beller, \{Andrea H.\} and Roberts, \{Brent W.\} and Brown, \{Jeffrey R.\}",
note = "This research was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture , the U.S. Department of Agriculture (under award number \#ILLU-470-367) and the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) through grant \#RRC08098400-07 to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as part of the SSA Retirement Research Consortium. The findings and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the SSA, any agency of the Federal Government, or the NBER. This paper has benefitted from a poster presentation at the Network for Integrated Behavioral Science Workshop, Nottingham, UK, May 2014, the 2014 Add Health Users Conference, Bethesda, Maryland, June 2014, and the American Economic Association meetings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 2014, and from a paper presentation at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Conference on “The Decline of the Middle Classes Around the World?”, Segovia, Spain, September 2014. The authors thank Shanshan Wang for excellent research assistance, and Genevieve Melford and Melissa Knoll of the CFPB for useful discussions. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website ( http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth ). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.",
year = "2015",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.joep.2015.08.010",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "51",
pages = "90--100",
journal = "Journal of Economic Psychology",
issn = "0167-4870",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
}