Financial Resilience and Adolescent Development: Exploring a Construct of Family Socioeconomic Determinants and Its Associated Psychological and School Outcomes

Although adolescents’ family socioeconomic contexts have been widely investigated, their conventional indicators neglect human adaptability, are segmented and difficult to modify, and show inconsistent effects on outcomes and across sex subgroups. Financial resilience is recently proposed as a more actionable and sustainable financial capability to cope with and adapt to emergencies and adversities, while its multidimensionality and impacts on adolescents have yet to be validated. This study utilizes developmental resilience theory and family financial socialization theory as foundations to establish its arguments. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to analyze data from the China Family Panel Studies. The four-dimensional structure of financial resilience was explored, comprising financial access, financial literacy, financial behavior, and social capital. The overall financial resilience index and its dimensions showed significant associations with psychological and school outcomes among adolescent boys and girls after controlling socioeconomic and demographic covariates. This study indicates that financial resilience might be a family socioeconomic determinant of adolescent outcomes, although its effects are not strong. Empirical evidence also suggests that financial resilience may have intergenerational effects, comprehensive socialization influences, and future-oriented characteristics among the adolescent sample, thus enriching its theoretical foundations. Meanwhile, nonsignificant results highlight the importance of considering the multidimensionality, cultural and situational contexts, population heterogeneities, developmental stages, and underlying mechanisms of financial resilience. This study could provide capability-based insights for understanding socioeconomic inequality, adolescent development, and family process. Practitioners may incorporate financial resilience into traditional socioeconomic interventions and human services.