Money And Betrayal: Perceptions Of Alimony Fairness In Relation To Infidelity, Jessica Wery, Michael Kothakota

Journal of Financial Therapy

Alimony is a contentious topic often argued over during a divorce. Individuals getting divorced seek fairness in an alimony settlement, but due to how laws are written this can seem arbitrary. Public policy suggests laws should reflect the suggestions of the people it affects. Thus, public perception of alimony fairness is an important component in the discussion of what is fair for spouses. In addition, infidelity in marriage might change how the public views what is fair. This study collected data from 1,285 individual United States participants. Participants were randomly assigned a vignette condition related to a hypothetical alimony scenario …

Spenders And Tightwads Among Newlyweds: Perceptions Of Partner Financial Behaviors And Relational Well-Being, Heather H. Kelley, Alexa B. Chandler, Ashley B. Lebaron-Black, Xiaomin Li, Melissa A. Curran, Jeremy B. Yorgason, Spencer James

Journal of Financial Therapy

Finances, and how couples manage their finances, can have important implications for couples’ relational well-being. Using data from 1,585 couples that participated in the CREATE study (a nationally representative dyadic dataset of U.S. newlywed couples), we examined how perceiving one’s spouse as a financial spender (i.e., spending more than they ideally would) or financial tightwad (i.e., spending less than they ideally would) was associated with several measures of relational well-being (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, and power) through actor-partner interdependence structural equation models. Results showed that perceiving one’s partner as a spender was detrimental for both the individual’s and the partner’s marital …

Trauma Of The Past: The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Adult Attachment, Money Beliefs And Behaviors, And Financial Transparency, D.Bruce Ross, Ed Coambs, Emily Johnson

Journal of Financial Therapy

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a strong, lasting impact on our mental and relational outcomes as adults. They may also impact how we address financial beliefs and behaviors. The current study utilizes 500 participants from Amazon MTurk and structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the relationships between ACEs and relational financial transparency behaviors through attachment style and money beliefs and behaviors. Findings indicated significant direct and indirect associations across these pathways, particularly for experiences of reported neglect, verbal, and sexual abuse on less security in adult attachment styles. In turn, insecure attachment styles were linked to increased maladaptive financial …

The Intersectionality Of Race And Gender In Financial Planner Use, Miranda Reiter, Di Qing, Narita Anderson, Kimberly Watkins

Journal of Financial Therapy

Using the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, this study examined the role of race and gender regarding the use of financial planners through the lens of intersectionality. More specifically, this study investigated whether there was an association between race and gender, notably for Black women, and financial planner use compared to White women, Black men, and White men. Results of the interaction analyses in the probit model show that Black women were more likely to use financial planners than other groups. A follow-up analysis indicated that results were significant when comparing Black women to White men but there was no …

The Road To Financial Satisfaction: Testing The Paths Of Knowledge, Attitudes, Sense Of Control, And Positive Financial Behaviors, Shekinah E. Dare, Wilco W. Van Dijk, Eric Van Dijk, Lotte F. Van Dillen, Marcello Gallucci, Olaf Simonse

Journal of Financial Therapy

A goal of financial therapies is to increase clients’ financial satisfaction by helping them to perform positive financial behaviors. The present study argues that the success of such therapies can be further enhanced by considering the individual factors that underlie such behaviors. To identify the possibly most promising factors, data from the 2018 MAS Financial Capability Survey (n = 2,133) were used and three sets of individual factors were examined: knowledge factors (financial knowledge and financial confidence), attitudinal factors (future orientation and attitude toward money), and sense of control factors (spending self-control and perceived behavioral control). Path analysis findings …

Exploring How One’S Primary Financial Conversant Varies By Marital Status, Megan Mccoy, Kenneth J. White, Xianyan Chen

Journal of Financial Therapy

Research has shown communication around finances is essential to relational satisfaction, yet often couples avoid these money talks. In this study, we examined how the financial discussions were impacted by marital status. The findings were surprising. Married people were the least likely to be engaging in money talks with their partner, all of the other participants (e.g., cohabitating, dating, separated) were all engaging their partners at much greater rates in money talks. However, married respondents were talking to their family members, friends, financial professionals, and other professionals about money. These different conversations were analyzed through the lens of social capital …

Physiological Arousal During Couple Financial Discussions As A Precursor To Seeking Financial Planning Help, Megan R. Ford, John Grable, Michelle Kruger, Alycia Degraff

Journal of Financial Therapy

There continues to be a great need for financial guidance within American households, yet the utilization of professional financial help, despite its growing accessibility, is low. It has been suggested that physiological arousal is an important factor that influences help-seeking behaviors. This paper tests the hypothesis that help-seeking intentions at the couple level are shaped in part by physiological arousal within the couple. Although exploratory, findings suggest the greater the joint level of arousal, the more likely a couple will be to report an intention to meet with a financial planner. Couples who experience a higher level of arousal during …

How Do Money, Sex, And Stress Influence Marital Instability?, E. Jeffrey Hill, David B. Allsop, Ashley B. Lebaron, Roy A. Bean

Journal of Financial Therapy

This study explored how money and sex simultaneously predicted marital instability, and what financial therapists might focus on with clients to address problems in these areas. Specifically, this paper concurrently examined the relationship of marital instability to financial and family stressors (financial stressors, work-family conflict, and parenting stressors); financial and sexual resources (couple income and couple sexual frequency); and financial and sexual perceptions (financial dissatisfaction and sexual dissatisfaction). Couple financial communication and couple relational communication were explored as intervention points for financial therapists. Data came from Wave 2 of the Flourishing Families data set (N = 301). Data were organized …

Building Financial Peace: A Conflict Resolution Framework For Money Arguments, Sarah D. Asebedo

Journal of Financial Therapy

This paper presents a well-known and highly utilized conflict resolution framework from the mediation profession and demonstrates how to apply this framework to money arguments. While conflict resolution skills have been identified as important to communication within the financial planning context, an integrated conflict resolution framework has yet to be recognized and understood within the financial planning literature. This paper aims to fill this gap. Ultimately, both mental health professionals and financial planners can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to resolving money arguments by combining training in personal financial strategies and conflict resolution principles.

Sources Of Referral In Student Financial Counseling, Shinae Choi, Suzanne Bartholomae, Clinton G. Gudmunson, Jonathan Fox

Journal of Financial Therapy

This study evaluates sources of referral to financial counseling and varied declines in financial stress across the financial counseling process. College students came to counseling most often through self-referral. Younger students and women were more likely to respond to institutional referrals. There were two clearly discernable periods of decline in financial stress, smaller interim declines occurring after requesting appointments and larger declines that occurred in counseling sessions. The interim declines, however, were only operative for those who were self- or institutionally-referred and not for those who entered on a social-referral. A possible explanation is that social-referrals have already had “someone …

Promoting Savings At Tax Time Through A Video-Based Solution-Focused Brief Coaching Intervention, Lance Palmer, Teri Pichot, Irina Kunovskaya

Journal of Financial Therapy

Solution-focused brief coaching, based on solution-focused brief therapy, is a well-established practice model and is used widely to help individuals progress toward desired outcomes in a variety of settings. This papers presents the findings of a pilot study that examined the impact of a video-based solution-focused brief coaching intervention delivered in conjunction with income tax preparation services at a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance location (n = 212). Individuals receiving tax preparation assistance were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: 1) control group; 2) video-based solution-focused brief coaching; 3) discount card incentive; 4) both the video-based solution-focused brief coaching …

Three Interventions For Financial Therapy: Fostering An Examination Of Financial Behaviors And Beliefs, Rebekah J. Nelson, Thomas E. Smith, Victoria M. Shelton, Kristin V. Richards

Journal of Financial Therapy

Three interventions that address the emotional components of handling finances are proposed. Drawn from a stepwise model of financial therapy, the three interventions introduced here have the specific aim of incorporating the emotional attributes of traditional financial behaviors and beliefs. First, the Financial Genogram identifies family of origin issues that may affect financial behaviors; second, the Financial Landscape intervention is used when emotional stress occurs in collecting and examining financial documents; and third, the Financial Mirror broadens clients’ perspectives of their financial behaviors. Issues in future research and implementation of the Five Step model are addressed in treating financially distressed …

Moneygrams: Recalled Childhood Memories About Money And Adult Money Pathology, Adrian Furnham, Sophie Von Stumm, Rebecca Milner

Journal of Financial Therapy

In this study 512 adults completed two questionnaires. One questionnaire was devised specifically for this study concerning childhood memories of parental beliefs and behaviours with respect to money (i.e moneygrams)/ The second questionnaire established a measure of “money pathology” (Forman, 1987). The moneygram questionnaire was based on clinical cases and idiographic studies on money pathology. Around a fifth of the items showed significant sex differences. Factor analysis highlighted one clear factor, namely “money secrecy” - which was associated with greater levels of spending money pathology in adulthood. In women, but not in men, higher family money secrecy was significantly associated …

Hoarding Disorder: It’S More Than Just An Obsession - Implications For Financial Therapists And Planners, Anthony Canale, Bradley Klontz

Journal of Financial Therapy

Compulsive hoarders feel emotional attachments to their money and possessions, making it difficult for them to spend or discard accumulated items. Traditionally, hoarding has been seen as a symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). However, hoarding behavior can be a problem in its own right, without someone meeting the diagnostic criteria for OCD or OCPD. Despite being a mental health disorder that poses a serious public health problem, social costs to the public, and strain on families, there is little empirical work that has examined Hoarding Disorder (HD) from a financial perspective. As with …

2013 Membership Profile Of The Financial Therapy Association: A Strategic Planning Report, Sarah Asebedo, Megan A. Mccoy, Kristy L. Archuleta

Journal of Financial Therapy

A second profile of the Financial Therapy Association (FTA) membership was conducted to continue the development of financial therapy as a new area of practice and study. The FTA was established in 2010 as an effort to bring together practitioners and researchers from diverse disciplines to share in a common vision of financial therapy. This profile report depicts the demographic profile (e.g., age, education, gender, occupation, income) and perspectives of members who participated in the survey commissioned by the FTA Strategic Planning Committee in 2013. The results of the membership profile survey highlight the future directions of and the challenges …