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Financial Credit Outcomes Of Ida Participation: Longitudinal Findings, Julie Birkenmaier, Jami Curley, Patrick Kelly

Journal of Financial Therapy

Financially vulnerable families often struggle with low credit scores. Thus, improved participant credit is often a goal of asset development programs, such as the Individual Development Account (IDA) program, but little is known about the long-term credit outcomes of participation. This article reports the final results of a three-year longitudinal exploratory study of credit outcomes for IDA participants. Using a convenience sample of IDA participants and non-participants (N = 164), data were analyzed using nonparametric and Chi-square for independence tests. Results indicate that participant credit scores improvements are achieved and maintained. Credit score is not a meaningful indicator of program …