Financial Wellbeing
UPDATE!
- We thank all those who have already registered for their interest and participation in our study.
- On September 20th, 2021 the first group of participants received a link to the questionnaire. This first group will receive biweekly surveys for the next six months.
- The second group will receive an invitation for their first survey at the beginning of November.
- The registrations are now closed.
Sooner or later, many people, young or old, poor or rich, will encounter financial worries in their lives. This can range from people knocking on the door of a food bank, to a college student short on cash, to people who lose their jobs, go through a divorce, see their own business go bankrupt, have to sell a house at a loss, are unable to pay bills, deal with illness, and so on. The COVID pandemic has likely further increased the number of people with uncertainty and worries about their financial situation.
When people worry about their financial situation, they may feel less good about themselves and this may manifest at home, at work, or in looking for work when they are unemployed. With this research, we want to learn more about people’s financial concerns and how these concerns can arise, worsen or diminish from one week to the next. We also want to find out more about what people’s financial concerns mean for their mental well-being and their participation in the labour market.
To get a complete picture of the impacts of financial worries, we encourage both people with and without financial worries to complete the survey.
We hope that over a six-month period, every other week you will complete a very short questionnaire of just 1 to 2 minutes about your financial concerns at that time. Only the very first questionnaire will be slightly longer. Your answers will of course be processed anonymously and not be shared with anyone. The storage and processing of answers takes place entirely in accordance with the guidelines of the Australian Privacy Act 1988.
The research started on September 20th, 2021 for the first group. However, it is still possible to register. Leave your e-mail address here to participate in the second group that starts in November. You will then automatically receive the first questionnaire at the beginning of November when the second group starts.
By participating in this research, you make a valuable social contribution and give scientific research into financial worries and financial well-being a significant boost. You contribute to results that companies and policymakers can then use to help avoid and reduce financial worries and their negative consequences as much as possible.
This international research is funded by the “Think Forward Initiative” and led by psychologist Dr. Bert Schreurs (Free University of Brussels) and economists Dr. Ruud Gerards (Maastricht University) and Dr. Riccardo Welters (James Cook University) and takes place in Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia.