Researcher Profile: An Interview With Clinton G. Gudmunson, Ph.D.

Clinton Gudmunson is an assistant professor in the department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University. Since entering his current position in 2010, he has worked closely with financial counselors to develop the research capacity of the ISU Financial Counseling Clinic (www.hdfs.hs.iastate.edu/financial) beginning to analyze the data from the archives which extend back to 1986, developing innovative approaches for collecting information from incoming client-research participants, and perusing and receiving grants to develop and investigate theories pertaining to personal financial literacy and financial counseling. This work follows his ongoing work investigating adolescent money attitudes, families and work (including family businesses), and economic pressure in family life. He teaches courses in personal finance, family policy, and research methods. He is active in the Financial Therapy Association and the National Council on Family Relations as a researcher seeking to bring a family perspective towards understanding financial issues. This is a theme that is investigated in his most recent article on Family Financial Socialization, which is coauthored by Sharon Danes

Sources of Referral in Student Financial Counseling

This study evaluates sources of referral to financial counseling and varied declines in financial stress across the financial counseling process. College students came to counseling most often through self-referral. Younger students and women were more likely to respond to institutional referrals. There were two clearly discernable periods of decline in financial stress, smaller interim declines occurring after requesting appointments and larger declines that occurred in counseling sessions. The interim declines, however, were only operative for those who were self- or institutionally-referred and not for those who entered on a social-referral. A possible explanation is that social-referrals have already had “someone to talk to” whereas other referrals may only begin to feel a psychological burden lifted after making an appointment. Total declines in financial stress were mostly impervious to individual differences and sources of referral lending support to the notion that financial counseling itself contributed to aggregate declines in financial stress

Influence of family financial socialization on academic success in college

Explicit parent–child financial socialization is one way that parents may help children feel less stress in college and increase their academic performance. To test this assumption, we used family financial socialization theory to inform multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and structural equation models (SEM). The results largely support the theory. Participants were 752 college students from a U.S. university. Specific findings indicate that students from more affluent families were more often taught to budget. Parent–child teaching/training was strongly associated with felt parental–financial influence and fewer worrisome academic behaviors because of economic pressure. Students who felt greater parent–financial influence and experienced fewer effects of economic pressure, achieved higher college grade point averages (GPAs). An implication of this study is the importance of strengthening support for financial learning in families