Financial competence and the role of non-cognitive factors

This study assesses students’ opinions towards finance, their financial self-confidence and their emotional disposition towards finance – collectively referred to as the attitude towards finance. Data have been collected using a structured questionnaire and have been analyzed with structural equation modelling. Findings show that there is a strong relationship between attitude towards finance and students’ financial competence. The results also suggest that attitude do affect financial knowledge and thus a better attitude toward finance may increase students’ financial knowledge. This result emphasizes the need to redefine financial education practices to include an initial diagnosis and an eventual restoration of learners’ attitude towards finance, to improve and optimize their long-run financial education process.