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Anderson et al. (2018) utilised data from the National Post-Secondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), which surveyed the financial knowledge of more than 89 200 undergraduate students in America. The study sought to determine students’ awareness of loan repayment terms. The study found that only 28% of the respondents were knowledgeable on basic financial terms such as interest rates, inflation, risk diversification and loan repayments. It also revealed that the overall financial literacy of students varies with socio-economic and academic factors relevant in predicting college success.
Furthermore, it was found that students who financed their studies via student loans exhibited better financial literacy.
Rajapakse (2018) considered the financial literacy of 132 university academics in the largest university system in Sri Lanka. The results revealed a medium level of financial knowledge (75.9%) and attitude (69.7%). However, this failed to reflect on their financial behaviour, which was measured at 59.96%.
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Potrich et al. (2015) considered the financial literacy of 991 young adults in southern Brazil with an average age of 27. An SEM was used to assess the invariances between socio- demographic variables, financial knowledge, financial behaviour and financial attitude.
The results showed that the respondents had sound financial attitudes, an intermediate level of financial behaviour and a poor level of financial knowledge. While the study reported similar levels of financial attitude between the genders, it was found that females had lower levels of financial knowledge and financial behaviour than their male counterparts. Furthermore, based on the models used to test the invariances of financial literacy amongst the genders, a significant relationship was found between females’
financial knowledge and overall financial literacy. However, this was not the case for males, as it was found that financial behaviour and financial attitudes were key influences on their overall financial literacy.
Jamal et al. (2015a) considered the effects of social influence and financial literacy on the savings behaviours among tertiary students in Sabah province, Malaysia. The data, which was analysed using a SMART-PLS found that parental and peer influences were major drivers of savings behaviours among students. While it was found that financial attitude does not influence savings behaviour, a positive relationship was found between financial literacy and savings behaviour.
Németh et al. (2015) study concluded that young Hungarian adults between the ages of 18 and 25 have a negative financial attitude towards loans. It found that most of the students considered the family as the primary source of information for financial decisions while balancing this with information from other sources such as the internet. While there is a dual risk with the former source, as studies have reported poor levels of financial literacy among Hungarians in general, it was found that the use of the internet as a secondary source of validation positively affected their financial literacy. Furthermore, the study found that the negative attitude of the students towards student loans was due to the fact that most of the respondents had never considered loans as a means of financing their studies.
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Nga and Yeoh (2015) investigated 248 Malaysian undergraduate students’ attitudes towards money. The study employed the theory of planned behaviour and the social cognitive theory to assess effective, social and cognitive behaviours. It was found that financial awareness was a key determinant of the students’ attitudes towards money across all dimensions. Furthermore, parental and peer influence were found to have positive impacts on students’ attitudes towards money, while mass media negatively affected them due to its promotion of materialistic values.
Paluri and Mehra (2016) explored the financial attitudes of women in the city of Nashik in India via Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The women’s financial attitude was categorised into clusters based on nine drivers of financial attitudes, namely, interest in financial issues; intuitive decisions; precautionary saving; free-spending; anxiety; and propensity to plan for both short- and long-term financial goals.
The analysis revealed that interest in financial issues was prevalent in the formation of clusters, while fatalistic attitude was least influential. Based on these drivers, the study concluded that financial attitude could be grouped into four clusters: conservative consumers, acquisitive consumers, unsure consumers and judicious consumers.
Herdjiono and Damanik (2016) survey of 382 respondents in Merauke, Indonesia, found that financial attitude is driven by environmental factors and social interactions, which subsequently affect financial management behaviours and financial knowledge.
Furthermore, due to poor financial education in low-medium income regions, financial knowledge does not effectively impact financial management behaviour. Susan and Djajadikerta (2017) established that a relationship exists between financial knowledge and the financial attitude of college students in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The study, which utilised an SEM also showed that positive attitudinal traits among students are positively linked with their financial knowledge and financial behaviour. These attitudinal traits include making plans to reach preset financial goals, retention planning, achievement esteem, power-prestige, etc.
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Isomidinova and Singh (2017) investigated the relationship between financial literacy, financial education, financial socialisation and attitudes towards money among young students in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The survey of 110 students found that their financial literacy was influenced by financial education and financial socialisation, whereas their attitude towards money did not necessarily impact their financial literacy.