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This study explores the relationship between financial social learning opportunities and financial behaviors of college students. Data were collected from 15,797 college students age 18 and over throughout the United States during spring and fall semesters of 2008. Financial behaviors were related to age, race, marital status, school rank, income level, loan amount, and qualification for financial aid. Results suggest important relationships exist between financial behaviors and financial social learning opportunities. Students who budget and save tended to have higher scores on the social learning opportunities indices than those who do not budget and save. Financial behaviors were positively related to social learning opportunities when controlling for demographic and financial characteristics.

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Earlier studies have documented persistent negative stereotypes of childless or childfree adults, though acceptance has increased in recent decades. Recent studies have also shown negative biases against parents, especially mothers, in work-related contexts. The current study used college students’ responses to hypothetical vignettes (N = 1,266) to compare perceptions of childless and childfree adults and parents using means comparisons with generalized linear modeling methods, controlling for student and vignette characteristics. Results showed that parents were perceived as warmer, but with less positive marital relationships, than those without children. Mothers were perceived as more stressed and childless men and women as more emotionally troubled, but there were few differences in work-related perceptions. Childless wives with no plans to have children were perceived as least warm, whereas husbands were perceived as least stressed. Results indicate some persistent negative stereotypes of childless adults along with negative perceptions of stress and marital strains related to parenthood.

This study explores the relationship between financial social learning opportunities and financial behaviors of college students. Data was collected from current college students age 18 and over throughout the United States during spring and fall of 2008. Results suggest important relationships exist among financial social learning opportunities, financial dispositions, and financial behaviors.

Changing perceptions of childlessness have been documented in the United States, but little is known about perceptions in developing countries undergoing rapid social changes and globalization, including Turkey. This project uses a survey and hypothetical vignettes about childless couples and parents to assess university students’ perceptions of childlessness ( N = 850). The authors find that parents are rated higher on interpersonal warmth and marital relationship quality, but mothers are seen as more stressed. Childless men and women are perceived as more driven but also as more emotionally troubled. The results indicate the continued importance of parenthood among Turkish students but also an understanding of women’s stresses in combining work and motherhood. The authors find relatively few rural and urban differences, whereas gender and income differences may reflect greater awareness of work—family concerns and acceptance of childlessness among women and higher income students.

Studies of contemporary attitudes about childlessness and infertility have focused mainly on highly industrialized countries, with less attention to developing countries like Turkey. This project explored attitudes about childlessness and infertility treatments and their interrelations among university students, who are often the forerunners of new attitudes and social change, in Turkey (N = 850) and the United States (Florida; N = 761). Turkish students, especially men, reported more negative attitudes about permanent childlessness and reported more positive attitudes about ethics and availability of infertility treatments. Students in Florida had more favorable attitudes toward childlessness and supported broader social access to infertility treatments (e.g., for those who were unmarried or who had chosen to delay childbearing). Women in both samples generally reported more positive attitudes about childlessness and the ethics and availability of infertility treatments than men. In addition, Turkish students who were female, from urban areas, or who aspired to a doctoral education reported more positive attitudes about childlessness than others. Regression analyses of pooled data confirmed persistent gender and country differences. In both samples, positive attitudes about childlessness were correlated with support for broader social access to infertility treatments. The results suggest that infertility treatments are viewed as a means for avoiding childlessness by those with traditional perspectives, but are seen as a mechanism for allowing for broader social access to parenthood and greater choice about reproduction among those with less traditional viewpoints.

This study assesses the effectiveness of state mandates regarding high school financial education in the United States. Data (N = 12,967) were collected from current college students aged 18 and over via a web survey from 15 college campuses from various regions across the United States. A stratified random sampling method was employed. Overall, this study shows that the financial behaviours of college students vary by high school state mandates on financial education, even when controlling for students' characteristics, financial knowledge, financial socialisation and financial dispositions. In the current study, a policy of "course required" was associated with financial behaviours in terms of regular saving, not "maxing out," and paying off credit card balances fully each month.