Coronavirus Anxiety/Anxiety effecting financial attitudes and behaviours

Introduction:

Dissertation information: Investigating the relationship between coronavirus anxiety and financial attitudes & behaviours amongst university students

Is coronavirus anxiety a significant predictor of financial attitudes or behaviours?

Hypotheses:

There will be a significant relationship between coronavirus anxiety and financial attitudes

There will be a significant relationship between coronavirus anxiety and financial behaviours

Previous research have found anxiety to be a predictor of financial attitudes and behavoours (please find the best research supporting this)

Research has provided evidence for financial anxiety, assuming a relationship between anxiety and finances by looking into financial attitudes and behaviours.

This dissertation, aims to investigate a relationship between anxiety surrounding covid-19 and financial attitudes and behaviours.

4 units of measurements/surveys were used in this study’s online questionnaire:

Independent variables: Anxiety & Coronavirus Anxiety

Dependent variables: Financial attitudes & Financial behaviour

Background Characteristics: Age and Gender not manipulated

Anxiety

Participants will be asked to report their level of anxiety using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), a self-report measure developed to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms, with a total of 21 items (Brenner, 2011). The BAI uses a likert scale to calculate results, 0 = not at all and 3 = severely, this will be adjusted in my study 1= not at all and 4= severely.

Coronavirus Anxiety

Following this, participants will be asked to report their level of coronavirus anxiety by completing the coronavirus anxiety scale (CAS) proposed by Lee (2020). The scale was adapted to include restlessness and difficulty concentrating as indicators of coronavirus anxiety (proposed symptoms of anxiety by the NHS, please provide reference to this), amongst dizziness, trouble sleeping, shock, eating behaviour and nauseousness. Questions will be asked using a likert scale of 1-5, where 1 = not having experienced the symptoms at all and 5 = having experienced the symptoms nearly everyday for the last 2 weeks.

The two scales will generate results to differentiate whether the participant is experiencing general anxiety or coronavirus anxiety. It is hypothesised that coronavirus anxiety will be the greater contributor of financial attitudes and behaviours.

Dependent Variables

Financial attitudes

Participants will be asked to fill out the Financial Attitudes Survey (Jorgensen 2007). The survey will investigate perceived financial confidence, attitudes towards spending, credit, savings, investing, insurance, and others all based on their personal beliefs. It is predicted that coronavirus anxiety will be a significant predictor of financial attitudes.

Financial Behaviour

Participants will be asked to complete the Financial Behaviour Survey (Jorgensen, 2007), which will report the different financial behaviours related to financial applications. This survey investigates which financial decisions individuals are most likely to make or have made already, common financial behaviours are centred around credit, saving, investing, debts and spending behaviour. The hypothesis predicts coronavirus anxiety to be a significant predictor of financial behaviours.