Finances and Future Health

Abstract

First-generation college students experience disproportionate levels of stress, anxiety, and lack of preparation for undergraduate education in comparison to their multi-generational peers in relation to their levels of financial support and literacy. This impacts on their levels of resiliency, their physical and mental wellbeing, academic success, and levels of attrition. This not only has impacts on their health and wellbeing in the present, but can also negatively impact both their health and their career trajectory in the future as well. Using a 2-phase approach, researchers collected both quantitative and qualitative data related to how first-generation EOF students think about the role of financial literacy, and in particular Federal Work Study, as a component of their current and future health status and academic success. Qualitative analysis gave rise to 3 themes related to student feelings of stress, pressure/obligation, lack of preparation, and uncertainty about the role of college education in their current and future lives. Findings are shared in order to better inform and guide institutions of higher education on how to best educate and support their first-generation students, particularly in how to aid these students in improving their financial literacy and financial support to improve resiliency, wellbeing, and academic success.