Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of Credit Wise Cats on financial knowledge and behaviors.
- The study used an interrupted time series design to compare college students' financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards the use of credit cards before and after the Credit Wise Cats seminar. Using pre- and post-test surveys, the authors compared the outcomes of participants before and after they participated in the seminar.
- The study found a significant relationship between participation in the Credit Wise Cats seminar and increased financial knowledge and effective financial behaviors.
- This study receives a low evidence rating. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to Credit Wise Cats; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Credit Wise Cats
Features of the Intervention
Credit Wise Cats, a project of Students in Free Enterprise, aims to change college students' financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The Credit Wise Cats seminar was designed to educate college students about credit card use and other financial behaviors (e.g., budgeting and tracking expenses). The Credit Wise Cats seminar is a one and one-half hour seminar on basic financial skills presented by a peer educator.
Features of the Study
The authors compared college students' financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards the use of credit cards before and after they participated in a Credit Wise Cats seminar. Study participants were 93 college students at a southwestern university in the U.S. who signed up for the free seminar related to the use of credit cards and other financial behaviors. The average age of participants was 20. The largest proportion of participants were White (31%) or American Indian or Pacific Islander (29%), with smaller proportions identifying as African or African American (12%), Hispanic (8%), Asian (7%), and multi-racial/ethnic (13%). The majority of participants were not married (88%) and did not have children (97%). The authors used pre- and post-test surveys administered the same day as the seminar. The pre-test included demographic information, and both the pre-and post-test surveys asked questions about current financial knowledge, attitudes toward the use of credit, and financial behaviors during the last two months. The authors used statistical tests to compare the outcomes of participants before and after they participated in the seminar.
Findings
Knowledge and skills for money management
- The study found that participants scored significantly higher in financial knowledge following the financial seminar (mean=6.51) as compared to at pre-test (mean=6.08).
- The study found that participants scored significantly higher in effective financial behaviors following the financial seminar (mean=5.67) as compared to at pre-test (mean=2.60).
- The study found that participants scored significantly lower in risky financial behaviors following the seminar (mean=.32) as compared to at pre-test (mean=.55).
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The authors compared the outcomes of participants measured before and after they participated in the Credit Wise Cats seminar. For these types of designs, the authors must observe outcomes for multiple periods before the intervention to rule out the possibility that participants had increasing or decreasing trends in the outcomes examined before enrollment in the program. Without knowing the trends before program enrollment, we cannot rule this out. Therefore, the study receives a low causal evidence rating.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not account for trends in outcomes before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to Credit Wise Cats; other factors are likely to have contributed.