College Student Financial Behavior: An Empirical Study on the Mediating Effect of Attitude Toward Money

摘要

This study aims to (1) identify the direct effect of financial literacy on financial behavior; (2) identify the indirect effect of financial literacy through attitude toward money on financial behavior; (3) identify the direct effect of perceived financial confidence on financial behavior;and (4) identify the indirect effect of perceived financial confidence on financial behavior through attitude toward money. This research was conducted at Economics Faculty in Universitas Negeri Semarang with the sample of students who have taken Budgeting and Financial Management course.The sampling technique was propotionate random sampling and obtained 230 respondents. In addition, the data was collected by distributing questionnaire and analysed using path analysis. Based on the results, there is a direct effect of financial literacy and perceived financial confidenceon financial behavior. The higher the students’ level of knowledge, they are getting better on their financial behavior. They are confident in their ability to develop best financial investments. Moreover, their planned investments are expected to earn huge revenue in the future andthus determine their financial behavior. In addition, there is an indirect effect of the financial literacy, perceived financial confidence, and attitude toward money on financial behavior. Attitude toward money has successfully mediated the influence of financial literacy and perceived financialconfidence on students’ financial behaviour.