Individual Measures

The individual financial well-being (FWB) concepts for each of the three domains are listed in the boxes below.

From the Money-Health Connection Study literature review, our research team selected several measures for each concept within each domain. The selection process was informed by the psychometric properties of the measure, the frequency of the measure noted in the research literature, and input from a transdisciplinary expert panel.

Material Measures

The material domain includes measures that assess the financial resources that people have or have access to, the difficulty they are having with their financial resources, and any changes to their financial situation.

  • Making Ends Meet

  • Economic / Material / Financial Hardship

  • Material Disadvantage / Deprivation

  • Income Volatility / Economic Losses

  • Family / Household Financial Resources

Psychosocial Measures

The psychosocial domain includes measures that assess how people feel about their financial resources, as well as their perception of the adequacy and stability of those resources.

  • Financial Satisfaction

  • Economic / Financial Strain, Stress, and Distress

  • Perceived Adequacy of Resources

  • Perceived Stability of Resources

  • Relative Deprivation

  • Financial Worry

Behavioral Measures

The behavioral domain includes measures that assess what people do with their financial resources—more specifically, their spending/consumption behaviors, their saving and budgeting behavior, and the financial adjustments made to meet financial obligations.

  • Financial Adjustments

  • Consumption and Spending

  • Saving

  • Family Resource Management