The sources of stress (academics, financial, family, social, and daily hassles) and coping strategies (self-help, approach, accommodation, avoidance, and self-punishment) of 166 college students were examined. The relationship between sex, specific sources of stress, and coping strategies was also investigated. Students completed a stress assessment inventory and a stress coping inventory based on a 5-factor revised COPE model (Zuckerman and Gagne Journal of Research in Personality, 37:169-204, 2003). Results found that college women reported a higher overall level of stress and greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies than college men. College men and women also reported different coping strategies for different stressors; however the use of emotion-focused coping strategies dominated over problem-solving strategies for both men and women. These results have implications for designing stress reduction workshops that build on the existing adaptive emotion-focused strategies of college students.

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Compulsive buying, defined as the inability to control purchasing behaviour, is higher among college-aged students than it is among the general public. The present study examined the factors related to compulsive buying among college students and how those factors differ as a function of who paid the majority of their debt: themselves or their parents. A total of 628 undergraduates from the US completed a questionnaire containing items to measure compulsive buying, personality and financial responsibility. Results revealed that variables predictive of compulsive buying varied depending on the amount of credit card debt that the student was personally responsible for paying. Findings have implications for reducing compulsive buying in college students. Financial knowledge and credit cardsEasy access to credit cards and limited financial knowledge are other factors that increase college students' risk for becoming compulsive buyers. Currently, in the US, incurring credit card debt

The current study proposes that personal need fulfillment (relatedness, generativity, identity, growth, and finances) predicts early and late retirement intentions. The personal needs of 160 full-time older employees were measured by personal goals, job satisfactions, job characteristics, and intrinsic motivation. Results suggest that the personal needs fulfilled by job employment remain important in retirement. The expectation for personal need fulfillment for identity, growth, and relatedness shifts from work to retirement for those who intend to retire early. The results are discussed in terms of the need for greater study of the relationship between expectations of personal need fulfillment, worker self-concept, and retirement decisions.