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This symposium brings together four papers that examine the relationship between financial capability and mental health across diverse populations, settings, and methodological approaches. Collectively, these studies show that financial conditions are not only economic realities but also deeply connected to psychological well-being, emotional distress, and behavioral health across the life course. By linking household financial experiences, community-based interventions, family resources, and technology-enabled emotional support, the symposium advances a more integrated understanding of how financial capability and mental health are intertwined.
The first paper investigates the mental health consequences of using alternative financial services, such as payday loans, using data from the Financial Health Pulse Survey. Applying propensity score matching, the study assesses whether reliance on these services is associated with poorer mental health outcomes. By focusing on financially vulnerable households, this paper highlights how exclusion from mainstream financial systems may intensify stress and psychological burden.
The second paper examines whether a community-based financial capability intervention can reduce depression in Central Mozambique. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study evaluates the mental health effects of participation in a locally grounded intervention intended to strengthen financial knowledge, practices, and resilience. The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that financial capability interventions may generate benefits beyond economic outcomes, including improvements in emotional well-being.
The third paper shifts attention to children and families by using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data to examine how income poverty and asset poverty shape child well-being through interconnected household, school, and community pathways. Using structural equation modeling, it investigates how both forms of poverty influence children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors through multi-level mechanisms across contexts.
The fourth paper explores an innovative, technology-based response to financial distress among young adults. This study fine-tunes a large language model to provide supportive, non-directive responses to users experiencing financial stress, debt worries, and economic insecurity. This work illustrates how digital tools may complement human-centered services by offering scalable emotional support related to financial anxiety.
Taken together, these papers offer new insight into the many pathways linking financial capability and mental health. They show that financial exclusion, insecurity, and limited assets can contribute to depression, stress, and behavioral problems, while financial capability interventions, asset-building strategies, and supportive technologies may promote well-being. The symposium calls for integrated services, interdisciplinary research, and cross-sector collaboration to address financial and mental health challenges as interconnected dimensions of social, economic, and health equity.