Teaching Justice-Involved Adolescents Basic Financial Literacy Skills: A Preliminary Investigation

There are approximately 423,000 adjudicated delinquency cases each year in the United States. Previous research indicates that variables associated with higher recidivism rates are also linked to lower levels of financial knowledge. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the impact of a 9-week financial literacy intervention with 52 adolescent males who resided in a juvenile residential treatment facility. The intervention included nine modules. For each module, participants (1) completed a pre- and post-test, (2) watched a brief video lecture and completed guided notes, and (3) completed a module-related activity. Overall, results indicated that participants’ financial knowledge increased across all nine lessons. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.