As the lending practices of the alternative financial services (AFS) industry harm many consumers and consumers' access and use of traditional credit are restricted, the use of AFS is a growing concern. The financial education of consumers determines their financial behavior, which may be inadequate to make effective financial decisions regarding high-cost borrowings. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine if and to what extent the sources of financial education is related to the use and frequency of use of AFSs among U.S. consumers. The theory of planned behavior and the transtheoretical model of change shaped the theoretical framework for this study. An explanatory correlational design was used to analyze archival data collected by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation for their 2015 National Financial Capability Study. Binary logistic and negative binomial regression analyses indicated that exposure to formal financial education did not contribute to reduced use and lower frequency of use of AFSs but, instead, contributed to the exact opposite. Only parental financial education was found to contribute to reduced use and lower frequency of use of AFSs. One-way ANOVA analyses indicated that all forms of financial education contributed to increased perceived financial knowledge. This study may lead to positive social change by informing policymakers about the necessary steps to remedy the problem of continuous AFS usage and serving as a foundation for future studies that should consider other factors beyond formal financial education that could influence the use and frequency of use of AFSs.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Martin Seay / Retirement savings and income projections are among the most financially complex calculations individual Americans will encounter. The movement towards self-directed employer retirement plans has shifted the responsibility for securing an adequate retirement increasingly to the employee, who may lack the financial understanding needed for proper calculations and decisions. There is an expressed preference among employees for the delivery of financial education in the workplace, where a majority of their financial knowledge is obtained. However, adoption of workplace comprehensive financial education programs has been slow due to the cost, time commitment, and lack of empirical support for their value. While there have been some mixed findings, literature has generally supported associations between financial education programs and improved literacy and behaviors. A great deal of these mixed results can be explained by the lack of consistency among definitional frameworks for financial literacy, the lack of consistent measures, and the variety of topics and methods used, all of which limit the ability to establish causal support for the educational program’s effectiveness. However, the preference for financial education in the workplace among employees suggests both the need and desire for more comprehensive financial education offered by employers. The purpose of this research was to investigate and test the links between the components in the framework for financial literacy by testing participation in a worksite comprehensive financial education program. In Essay One, the link between financial education and change in financial literacy was tested. Essay Two tested the link between the financial education program and financial well-being. In Essay Three, the link between financial literacy and financial behavior was explored. The results indicated associations between all three links in the financial literacy model, utilizing both primary research employing quasi-experimental methods, and secondary research from a larger national data sample. For financial educators who are interested in developing and facilitating comprehensive financial education programs for employee or other groups, this research can help provide support and guidance for those efforts. If comprehensive financial education programs can be better positioned to help improve the levels of financial literacy among Americans, fewer negative associated behavioral effects, such as lack of planning and under saving for retirement, may occur.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Walter Schumm and Kristy Archuleta / Financial literacy has become a prominent topic of discussion since the latest economic downturn. Although many studies reveal that our youth’s financial literacy is low, no study to date provides an overview as to how our youth are learning financial literacy concepts. This dissertation seeks to explore how homeschooling families prepare their children to be financially literate. This study reviewed four sensitizing concepts: (a) communication, (b) engagement, (c) outside influences, and (d) parental perspectives based on the learning theory: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Twenty primary educators in homeschooling families from a variety of states were interviewed for this study. Out of the twenty participants, eight were classified in the elementary age group, five were classified in the middle school age, and seven were classified in the high school age. Each sensitizing concept was examined for each school age group. This exploratory study found that parents who homeschool tend to focus on three main topics of personal finance: debt or the avoidance of debt, savings, and budgeting. Little evidence suggests that parents help their children with the mechanics of these behaviors. There were three important findings extracted in this study. First, the results suggest that homeschooling parents need to become better prepared to teach their children about money, and second, that personal finance should be thought of as a core subject in the elementary age years in lieu of just a life skill. Finally, this study found that there is a large focus around personal finance topics in the elementary age years and the high school years, with little attention to personal finance behaviors for the middle school age group. The results of this study provide those entities that advocate improved financial literacy an understanding as to the “how” parents who homeschool prepare their kids to understand money.

Orientador: Marcus Vinicius Maltempi / Banca: Rosana Giaretta Sguerra Miskulin / Banca: Celina Aparecida Almeida Pereira Abar / Resumo: Nesta dissertação abordamos questões concernentes à formação inicial de professores de Matemática, a partir da incorporação das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) e de idéias relacionadas à necessidade de uma Educação Financeira para todos. Neste sentido, nosso objetivo foi investigar as contribuições que surgem à prática pedagógica dos licenciandos em Matemática quando constroem e aplicam WebQuests sob o contexto da Matemática Financeira. Para tanto, um curso de Extensão sobre construção de WebQuests foi oferecido aos alunos do Curso de Licenciatura em Matemática da UNESP de Rio Claro - SP, os quais, posteriormente, utilizaram as WebQuests construídas como material didático durante o Estágio Supervisionado (prática docente) que realizaram junto a uma escola pública de Rio Claro, SP. O curso de Extensão, assim como toda a investigação aqui apresentada, foi desenvolvido tendo por base a teoria de aprendizagem construcionista. Além disso, nos embasamos em trabalhos que tratam da formação inicial docente, em especial, do professor de Matemática, e também, da importância da Educação Financeira na vida das pessoas. Baseados no estudo realizado, cremos que a partir do momento que os licenciandos vivenciarem uma formação inicial diferenciada, que privilegie também o uso das TIC na Educação, além dos conteúdos específicos, estaremos formando professores mais propensos a usarem as TIC em sua prática docente, de forma a propor a seus alunos situações nas quais eles terão que criar, discutir e refletir sobre suas ações. / Abstract: In this dissertation we accosted concerning questions to the inicial formation of the Mathematics teachers, starting from the incorporation of theTechnologies of Information and Communication (TIC) and of ideas related to the need of a Financial Education for all. In this sense, our objective was to investigate the contributions that appear to the pedagogic practice of the graduates in Mathematics when they build and they apply WebQuests about the context of the Financial Mathematics. For so much, a course of Extension about construction of WebQuests was offered to the students of the Degree Course in Mathematics of UNESP, Rio Claro - SP, the ones which, later, they used WebQuests built as didactic material during the Supervised Apprenticeship (teaching practice) that accomplished a public school of Rio Claro, SP. The course of Extension, as well as all the investigation here presented, it was developed having for base the theory of learning construcionista. Besides, ourselves based in works that treat of the teaching initial formation, especially, of the Mathematics teachers, and also, of the importance of the Financial Education in the people's life. Based on the accomplished study, we believe that starting from the moment that the graduates live a differentiated initial formation, that it also privileges the use of TIC in the Education, besides the specific contents, we will be forming teachers more prone to use TIC in his educational practice, in way to propose to their students situations in which they will have to create, to discuss and to contemplate about their actions. / Mestre

Em um país, como o Brasil, com grande desigualdade de renda, os indivíduos com baixo poder aquisitivo devem ser capazes de maximizar a utilização de sua riqueza para vencer as dificuldades impostas pela disparidade existente. Com isso, o entendimento das razões pelas quais as pessoas se endividam torna-se um tema relevante. O objetivo deste trabalho, portanto é o entendimento das razões para o endividamento destes indivíduos através de entrevistas estruturadas. As conclusões desta pesquisa são de que a falta de planejamento dos indivíduos, a falta de conhecimento sobre educação financeira, a alta propensão ao consumo, a baixa valoração do futuro, a necessidade de status e fatores externos, tais como: a alta taxa de juros, desemprego, desestabilização familiar e problemas de saúde são razões para o endividamento. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que 21,6% dos entrevistados se endividam devido a incidentes pessoais e familiares, 35,3% da amostra afirmou que o motivo para a situação atual deveu-se ao fato de serem consumistas e 43,1% afirmaram que isso ocorreu devido a falta de controle. / In a country, like Brazil, which has a high level inequality, the low income people have to be capable to maximize their wealth to go through the dificulties imposed by the inequality. , the understandings of the reasons why people become in debt become a relevant theme. The aim of this paper is to understand the reasons to the debt of these people by doing semi-structured interviews. The conclusions of this research are that the absence of planning, the lack of knowledge about financial education, low evaluation of the futures, unemployment, status necessity and extern factors such like high interest income, unemployment, familiar instability and health problems are reasons to take a debt. The results of the research show that 21,6% of the interviewers take debt because of personal and familiar incidents, 35,3% of the sample said that the reason for their situation occurred because they are impulsive buyers, and 43,1% said it happened because of the lack of control.

This thesis aims to capture the notion of "Financial iliteracy" as a phenomenon of the present in the context of the Czech Republic, or of the region with the highest unemployment and specific problems - the Most region. The introductory part defines basic concepts connected with financial iliteracy, its education support in the Czech Republic and the measurement possibilities. The next part concentrates on the Most region, on the concrete examples of financial iliteracy support on this location and it is followed by a survey. The conclusion will look at the evaluation of results gained by the survey and recommendations for financial iliteracy support optimization.

Um dos desafios atuais é promover a capacitação financeira dos indivíduos, de forma a torná-los aptos a tomar suas decisões com maior fundamentação e segurança, possibilitando uma postura pró-ativa na gestão de suas Finanças Pessoais. Nos Estados Unidos, Reino Unido e Japão, as ações de Educação em Finanças Pessoais estão em estágio mais avançado do que em países do Leste Europeu e da América Latina, inclusive o Brasil. Ainda que algumas unidades de ensino no país, isoladamente, estejam implementando em suas grades curriculares a Educação em Finanças Pessoais, há a necessidade de se promover a sua inclusão nos currículos brasileiros, sendo esta demanda coerente com os interesses sociais predominantes e relevante para o desenvolvimento econômico do país. Dessa forma, com base na pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e na experiência de profissionais da área de educação que estão conduzindo a inserção da Educação em Finanças Pessoais nos currículos escolares, essa dissertação de caráter exploratório se propõe a responder aos seguintes problemas de pesquisa, de modo a subsidiar as políticas públicas de Educação em Finanças Pessoais: 1) Quais os fatores críticos para a implantação da Educação em Finanças Pessoais nas grades curriculares? 2) Quais estratégias podem fomentar a capacitação financeira dos indivíduos nos âmbitos escolares? Os resultados sugerem a necessidade de se considerar os seguintes aspectos: a) Inserção do assunto sem o foco nos interesses comerciais de agentes privados; b) Fortalecimento das instituições; c) Desenvolvimento de profissionais por meio de ações da esfera pública e privada; d) Melhoria da formação e valorização do corpo docente; e) Adequação das atividades pedagógicas às fases do ensino; e f) Introdução da Educação em Finanças Pessoais no Ensino Básico em três fases que permitirão abordá-lo inicialmente, como tema transversal, e, finalmente, como disciplina. / The improvement of personal financial capacity as a means of making better-informed financial decisions and enabling proactive management of Personal Finance is a relevant current challenge. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, Financial Education initiatives are at a more advanced level than in Eastern European and Latin American countries, including Brazil. While a few Brazilian schools are making isolated efforts to implement Financial Education as part of their curricula, its inclusion in the official curriculum must be promoted; the need for Financial Education is in accordance with dominant social interests and relevant to the country\'s economic development. Therefore, based on a review of relevant literature and on the experience of educators conducting inclusion of Financial Education in the school curriculum, this work seeks to answer the following research problems, in order to subsidize public policies on Financial Education: 1) Which are the critical factors for implanting Financial Education in the Brazilian curriculum? 2) What strategies can foster personal financial capacity in the school environment? Results suggest that the following aspects are to be considered: a) Inclusion of Financial Education without focusing on third-party commercial interests; b) Strengthening of institutions; c) Professional development through public and private initiatives; d) Improvement of teacher training; e) Adequation of teaching strategies to the relevant learning stages; and f) Three-stage introduction of Financial Education into the Basic Education curriculum, initially as an interdisciplinary subject, and later as a discipline in its own right.

Consumers need to acquire financial knowledge and confidence in order to take effectual actions to accumulate adequate retirement wealth and improve their overall financial well-being. Thus, quality financial education programs are needed to empower consumers to achieve these goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Utah State University (USU) Retirement and Savings Seminar as measured by participant satisfaction and participants‘ financial knowledge, financial confidence, and financial behavior change compared to a similar group of non-participants. The program evaluation was guided by a logic model developed for the seminar. Data for this study were collected with three online questionnaires emailed to USU employees who enrolled in the seminar as well as a comparison group matched by gender and employment category. A total of 188 individuals responded to the surveys, with subsamples of 54 treatment group participants and 134 comparison group participants. Results from chi-square crosstabulations and an independent samples t test revealed that age, total household income, and current retirement assets were the only significant group differences between seminar participants and non-participants. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the Retirement and Savings Seminar is a beneficial program. Overall, seminar participants reported that they were very satisfied with the seminar and would recommend it to other university employees in the future. Results from the hierarchical regression models found a significant increase in seminar participants‘ financial knowledge and financial confidence from the pretest to the posttest. Additionally, seminar participants improved their financial knowledge and financial confidence scores more than non-participants above and beyond group differences in age, total household income, and pretest scores. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA found that financial behavior also increased more for seminar participants than for non-participants two months after completing the seminar. According to the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM), individuals progress through five stages of behavior change to modify a problem behavior or acquire a positive behavior. Consistent with this theory, a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated that the seminar helped seminar participants to progress to a higher TTM stage of change more than non-participants.

Em um país, como o Brasil, com grande desigualdade de renda, os indivíduos com baixo poder aquisitivo devem ser capazes de maximizar a utilização de sua riqueza para vencer as dificuldades impostas pela disparidade existente. Com isso, o entendimento das razões pelas quais as pessoas se endividam torna-se um tema relevante. O objetivo deste trabalho, portanto é o entendimento das razões para o endividamento destes indivíduos através de entrevistas estruturadas. As conclusões desta pesquisa são de que a falta de planejamento dos indivíduos, a falta de conhecimento sobre educação financeira, a alta propensão ao consumo, a baixa valoração do futuro, a necessidade de status e fatores externos, tais como: a alta taxa de juros, desemprego, desestabilização familiar e problemas de saúde são razões para o endividamento. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que 21,6% dos entrevistados se endividam devido a incidentes pessoais e familiares, 35,3% da amostra afirmou que o motivo para a situação atual deveu-se ao fato de serem consumistas e 43,1% afirmaram que isso ocorreu devido a falta de controle. / In a country, like Brazil, which has a high level inequality, the low income people have to be capable to maximize their wealth to go through the dificulties imposed by the inequality. , the understandings of the reasons why people become in debt become a relevant theme. The aim of this paper is to understand the reasons to the debt of these people by doing semi-structured interviews. The conclusions of this research are that the absence of planning, the lack of knowledge about financial education, low evaluation of the futures, unemployment, status necessity and extern factors such like high interest income, unemployment, familiar instability and health problems are reasons to take a debt. The results of the research show that 21,6% of the interviewers take debt because of personal and familiar incidents, 35,3% of the sample said that the reason for their situation occurred because they are impulsive buyers, and 43,1% said it happened because of the lack of control.

Um dos desafios atuais é promover a capacitação financeira dos indivíduos, de forma a torná-los aptos a tomar suas decisões com maior fundamentação e segurança, possibilitando uma postura pró-ativa na gestão de suas Finanças Pessoais. Nos Estados Unidos, Reino Unido e Japão, as ações de Educação em Finanças Pessoais estão em estágio mais avançado do que em países do Leste Europeu e da América Latina, inclusive o Brasil. Ainda que algumas unidades de ensino no país, isoladamente, estejam implementando em suas grades curriculares a Educação em Finanças Pessoais, há a necessidade de se promover a sua inclusão nos currículos brasileiros, sendo esta demanda coerente com os interesses sociais predominantes e relevante para o desenvolvimento econômico do país. Dessa forma, com base na pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e na experiência de profissionais da área de educação que estão conduzindo a inserção da Educação em Finanças Pessoais nos currículos escolares, essa dissertação de caráter exploratório se propõe a responder aos seguintes problemas de pesquisa, de modo a subsidiar as políticas públicas de Educação em Finanças Pessoais: 1) Quais os fatores críticos para a implantação da Educação em Finanças Pessoais nas grades curriculares? 2) Quais estratégias podem fomentar a capacitação financeira dos indivíduos nos âmbitos escolares? Os resultados sugerem a necessidade de se considerar os seguintes aspectos: a) Inserção do assunto sem o foco nos interesses comerciais de agentes privados; b) Fortalecimento das instituições; c) Desenvolvimento de profissionais por meio de ações da esfera pública e privada; d) Melhoria da formação e valorização do corpo docente; e) Adequação das atividades pedagógicas às fases do ensino; e f) Introdução da Educação em Finanças Pessoais no Ensino Básico em três fases que permitirão abordá-lo inicialmente, como tema transversal, e, finalmente, como disciplina. / The improvement of personal financial capacity as a means of making better-informed financial decisions and enabling proactive management of Personal Finance is a relevant current challenge. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, Financial Education initiatives are at a more advanced level than in Eastern European and Latin American countries, including Brazil. While a few Brazilian schools are making isolated efforts to implement Financial Education as part of their curricula, its inclusion in the official curriculum must be promoted; the need for Financial Education is in accordance with dominant social interests and relevant to the country\'s economic development. Therefore, based on a review of relevant literature and on the experience of educators conducting inclusion of Financial Education in the school curriculum, this work seeks to answer the following research problems, in order to subsidize public policies on Financial Education: 1) Which are the critical factors for implanting Financial Education in the Brazilian curriculum? 2) What strategies can foster personal financial capacity in the school environment? Results suggest that the following aspects are to be considered: a) Inclusion of Financial Education without focusing on third-party commercial interests; b) Strengthening of institutions; c) Professional development through public and private initiatives; d) Improvement of teacher training; e) Adequation of teaching strategies to the relevant learning stages; and f) Three-stage introduction of Financial Education into the Basic Education curriculum, initially as an interdisciplinary subject, and later as a discipline in its own right.