Psy. D., Antioch University, 2018, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

Financial stressors such as unemployment and unexpected expenses are difficult for the general population, but for adults who experienced an adverse childhood, financial stressors may have a serious negative impact on their motivation, well-being, and interpersonal relationships. In addition, life stress may lead people with adverse childhood experiences to exhibit dysfunctional money behaviors. The primary hypothesis of this study is that adults who had adverse childhood experiences, as measured by the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q), will show a positive association between the severity of their childhood adverse experiences and the extent of dysfunctional money behaviors they report, as measured by the Klontz-Money Behavior Inventory (K-MBI). Out of 187 random participants in this research project, the average number of adverse childhood experiences was 2.11 out of a possible 10. Using the Pearson Correlations, the K-MBI's scales as related to the total number of ACE-Q items statistically varied in significance from the weak to the moderate range. Future researchers in this area are encouraged to stratify those people who had four or more adverse childhood experiences to allow these potentially causal dysfunctional money behaviors to show their dominance. This Dissertation is available in Open Access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu and Proquest database and adds some of the dissertations listed there to PsycINFO.

Committee: Ron Pilato Psy.D. (Committee Chair); Daniel Schwartz Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Granoff Tom Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Therapy; Counseling Psychology; Finance; Mental Health; Psychological Tests; Psychology; Psychotherapy