The Association between Marital Status and Household Financial Confidence Levels in the U.S.

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Madeleine Dawson
Madeleine is a Junior at Wesleyan University majoring in Government and minoring in Integrated Design, Engineering & Applied Sciences (IDEAS). She is originally from San Francisco, California. She is the leader of FemFit on campus, and works for several startup companies outside of school. She also is excited to move to New York City this summer!

Abstract: This research examines the association between marital status and household financial confidence levels in the United States, using data from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study. The study finds that there is a significant association between marital status and financial confidence, with married individuals having higher levels of financial confidence than widowed, divorced/separated, living with a partner, and never married individuals. The relationship between marital status and financial confidence is moderated by gender, with male respondents across every level of marital status scoring higher on average than female respondents in financial confidence. The study highlights the importance of understanding the interaction effect between marital status and gender in identifying potential gender differences in financial confidence and developing tailored interventions to improve financial well-being among different subgroups of the population. However, the cross-sectional nature of the data and the limited number of variables included in the analysis limits the ability to establish causality.

Data-Analysis-Poster