Exploring The Mediating Role Of Financial Well-Being In The Relationship Between Financial Stress And Happiness Among College Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68354/742141Keywords:
financial stress, financial well-being, happiness, mediation analysis, college students, PLS-SEMAbstract
Introduction: Financial stress may affect college students’ financial well-being and happiness, yet their interrelationships remain underexamined, particularly in the Philippine context. Examining these relationships may inform student financial and well-being interventions.
Objective: This study examined the relationships among financial stress, financial well-being, and happiness and tested the mediating role of financial well-being among college students in Davao City.
Methods: A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional design was used with 238 college students enrolled during the 2024–2025 academic year, selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected online using the Financial Well-Being Scale, Financial Stress Scale, and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4.0, with bootstrapping used to test direct and indirect effects.
Results: Students reported moderate financial stress and happiness and comparatively higher financial well-being. Financial stress was significantly associated with financial well-being (β = .547, p < .001) and happiness (β = .304, p = .021), while financial well-being was significantly associated with happiness (β = .297, p = .005). Financial well-being partially mediated the relationship between financial stress and happiness (indirect effect = .162, p = .005), accounting for approximately 35% of the total effect.
Conclusions: Financial stress, financial well-being, and happiness are significantly interconnected, with financial well-being partially mediating the relationship between financial stress and happiness. The findings support strengthening financial education, stress-management programs, and student support services. Future research should examine these relationships using longitudinal and more representative samples.
References
Aknin, L., et al. (2018). Buying well-being: Spending behavior and happiness. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12386
Alam, B., et al. (2021). Assessing the level of happiness among dental students of Pakistan: Web-based study. Pakistan Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 15(7), 1629–1632. https://doi.org/10.53350/pjmhs211571629
Bailey, W., et al. (1998). The relationship of financial stress to overall stress and satisfaction. Semantic Scholar. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Relationship-of-Financial-Stress-to-Overall-and-Bailey-Woodiel/ff4a0b7a0ac08fcf6ed1940586e1a63673888ba0
Bashir, I., & Qureshi, I. (2023). Financial well-being and financial stress: Examining the moderating effect of gender. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, 11(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.2478/auseb-2023-0001
Bernardo, A., & Resurreccion, K. F. (2018). Financial stress and well-being of Filipino students: The moderating role of external locus-of-hope. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 51(1). https://doi.org/10.31710/pjp/0051.01.03
Bracho, F., & Bracho, F. (2007). Happiness as the greatest human wealth. Semantic Scholar. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Happiness-as-the-Greatest-Human-Wealth-Bracho-Bracho/8842ea33596692a9c0e3ae5321d0e591a1c4b3ed
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2024, August 6). Measuring financial well-being: A guide to using the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/financial-well-being-scale/
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2022). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (6th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Danahy, R., et al. (2024). Financial stress among college students: New data about student loan debt, lack of emergency savings, social and personal resources. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 58(2), 692–709. https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12581
Daswani, M., & Leike, J. (2015). A definition of happiness for reinforcement learning agents. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 231–240). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21365-1_24
Delafrooz, N., & Paim, L. (2013). Role of financial stress on relationship between financial problem and financial wellness among Malaysia workers. African Journal of Business Management, 7(20), 1966–1972. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm12.082
Dewi, P., et al. (2023). Factors that affect financial well-being in master program students. International Journal of Management Studies and Social Science Research, 5(1), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.56293/ijmsssr.2022.4559
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312
Garðarsdóttir, R., et al. (2009). It’s not the money, it’s the quest for a happier self: The role of happiness and success motives in the link between financial goals and subjective well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28(9), 1100–1127. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2009.28.9.1100
Hair, J., et al. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
Henseler, J., et al. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Heo, W., Cho, S. H., & Lee, P. (2020). APR financial stress scale: Development and validation of a multidimensional measurement. Journal of Financial Therapy, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.4148/1944-9771.1216
Hsu, T., Tam, L., & Howell, R. T. (2017). Do you feel financially secured? The investigation of economic indicators and consequences of financial well-being. Atlantic Marketing Journal, 5, 15. https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1788&context=buspapers
Jalloh, A. (2014). Measuring happiness: Examining definitions and instruments. Semantic Scholar. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Measuring-Happiness%3A-Examining-Definitions-and-Jalloh/0b2c2ed9e139a58060b8e246f56e67d47bc0496b
Kim, B. (2016). Introduction to mediation analysis. UVA Library StatLab. https://library.virginia.edu/data/articles/introduction-to-mediation-analysis
Korankye, T., et al. (2024). The effect of student loan debt on emergency savings and the moderating role of financial knowledge: Evidence from the U.S. Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 17(9), Article 420. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17090420
Kumar, T., et al. (2022). Happiness and its determinants among nursing students. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 31(2), 293–298. https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_127_21
Mogilner, C., et al. (2018). Time, money, and subjective well-being. Semantic Scholar. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Time%2C-Money%2C-and-Subjective-Wellbeing-Mogilner-Whillans/3874bed28247552c860432c3a1d32c9d84418f25
Moore, A., et al. (2021). A qualitative examination of the impacts of financial stress on college students’ well-being: Insights from a large, private institution. SAGE Open Medicine, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/20503121211018122
Netemeyer, R., et al. (2017). How am I doing? Perceived financial well-being, its potential antecedents, and its relation to overall well-being. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3485990
Obbarius, N., et al. (2021). A modified version of the transactional stress concept according to Lazarus and Folkman was confirmed in a psychosomatic inpatient sample. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 584333. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.584333
Obenza, B., et al. (2024). The mediating effect of financial self-efficacy on financial behavior and financial well-being of college students in Region XI. American Journal of Economics and Business Innovation, 3(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.54536/ajebi.v3i1.2313
Oquaye, M., et al. (2020). The antecedents and consequence of financial well-being: A survey of parliamentarians in Ghana. Review of Behavioral Finance, 14(1), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.1108/rbf-12-2019-0169
Peña, H., et al. (2024). Financial literacy and financial stress among college students within Davao Region. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 50(6), 509–522. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajess/2024/v50i61428
Pijoh, L., et al. (2020). Financial literacy, financial behaviour and financial anxiety: Implication for financial well-being of top management level employees. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354755454
Puterman, E., et al. (2013). Indirect effect of financial strain on daily cortisol output through daily negative to positive affect index in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(12), 2883–2889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.07.016
Qiao, Y., & Cai, Y. (2021). Financial assets and happiness: Evidence from the China Household Finance Survey. Applied Economics Letters, 30(4), 466–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2021.1992340
Roll, S., et al. (2016). Financial anxiety in low- and moderate-income households: Findings from the Household Financial Survey. https://doi.org/10.7936/k7hm581r
Sabri, M. F., & Falahati, L. (2013). Predictors of financial well-being among Malaysian employees: Examining the mediate effect of financial stress. Journal of Emerging Economies and Islamic Research, 1(3), 61. https://doi.org/10.24191/jeeir.v1i3.9130
Senik, C. (2014). Wealth and happiness. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 30(1), 92–108. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/gru004
Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2019). Revisiting the Sustainable Happiness Model and pie chart: Can happiness be successfully pursued? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1689421
Speak, A., et al. (2018). Comparing convenience and probability sampling for urban ecology applications. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(5), 2332–2342. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13167
Suen, L. W., Huang, H., & Lee, H. (2014). A comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling [in Chinese]. Hu Li Za Zhi, 61(3), 105–111. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:27279206
Sundriyal, N. R., & Kumar, N. D. R. (2014). Happiness and wellbeing. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.25215/0104.020
Tariq, Q. (2012). Impact of financial stress on life satisfaction. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1, 139–148. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/IMPACT-OF-FINANCIAL-STRESS-ON-LIFE-SATISFACTION-Tariq/9d3b38960372aacecda0b013e002b8e4c5c2b415
Thatcher, W. G., & Drane, J. W. (2003). On treating a survey of convenience sample as a simple random sample. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, 2(2), 478–480. https://doi.org/10.22237/jmasm/1067646060
Tran, A., et al. (2018). Financial stress, social supports, gender, and anxiety during college: A stress-buffering perspective. The Counseling Psychologist, 46(7), 846–869. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000018806687
Zhan, M. (2022). Financial stress and hardship among young adults: The role of student loan debt. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 49(3). https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.4541
Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2023). Financial well-being in the United States: The roles of financial literacy and financial stress. Sustainability, 15(5), Article 4505. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054505
Zhao, X., Lynch, J. G., Jr., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1086/651257
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Dianne Mariz Obenza-Tanudtanud (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2026 REABMS, its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved. For all open access content, the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License terms apply.
