Worldview and Adjustments to the Individual Problem

¶ … worldview and adjustments to the individual problem statement.

I have been astonished to discover that many more college students have problems with financial literacy than I originally thought existent. I, somehow, thought that college students were savvier with their money and more financially erudite.

Changes that I may make to the individual problem statement are to be more specific regarding the schools and colleges surveyed. I would, for instance, be interested in assessing whether students from more privileged socio-economic backgrounds would show greater financial literacy than those from economically deprived backgrounds. On the one hand, students from wealthier origin may have more experience with money matters. On the other hand, students from deprived backgrounds may need to possess knowledge of financial literacy more than those from wealthier backgrounds, especially since some of the former may need to fend for themselves from very young ages as well as start their own business. Modification in research question assessing whether there is a difference in the habits of the various colleges and schools directed to the particular class sections would be interesting.

2. The research study that seems best suited for my doctoral study.

I would do a mixed approach since I like the richness of the qualitative approach that would generate assumptions and hypotheses and I would then ground the quantitative study on the hypothesis that have been stimulated by the qualitative. The qualitative may be grounded theory. The quantitative would be a randomized pre-test, post-test methodology using a longitudinal, cross-sectional approach. The same students that would leave school would be tested on their financial literacy at graduation of HS and again followed up at their graduation from college to see whether there was any difference in results.

A survey with formal questions on financial literacy will be best. Since I want to be as accurate and objective as possible, the survey will be pilot tested and reviewed by two objective individuals who are experts in personal finance. The validity of the survey will be assessed with Cronbach's alpha and be tested by an ANOVA since multiple independent factors are involved. The items will be in cumulative level of difficulty so that I will be able to adding a quantitative level to them and assess.

3. The main compelling points of my study.