Consumer Education: Does It Change Students' Competencies and Attitudes?

Abstract

A number of states require or are considering the required teaching of consumer education in secondary schools. However, almost all previous research has found no difference in consumer economic competency between students who had taken a consumer education/economics course and students who had not taken the course. This research was conducted in a state that requires consumer education of all students to see if there was a change in competency level and attitudes toward business. Potential differences in types of courses used to meet the state requirements were also investigated. The basic finding is that students who took a course specifically designed to present consumer education topics did improve their consumer economics competency and developed a more positive attitude toward business.

The Impact of Personal Finance Education Delivered in High School and College Courses

“…To date, studies evaluating personal finance education delivered through school curriculum have shown that the financial competency (i.e., behavior, attitude, and knowledge) of secondary school students is positively impacted by widely delivered consumer and financial education (National Endowment for Financial Education, 1998;Langrehr, 1979;Tennyson & Nguyen, 2001). For example, students enrolled in a high school curriculum designed to teach financial management were tested immediately following and three months after taking a course in personal financial management.…”

Protecting Adolescents’ Personal Information Online: Constraints and Parameters

“…Nowak and Phelps (1992), and Milne and Rohm (2000) observe that concern for privacy is dependent upon knowing one's privacy has been invaded, which suggests one must understand how privacy invasion occurs. This knowledge can be acquired in schools (Langrehr, 1979).…”

Framing consumer education conceptual innovations as consumer activism

“…For clarification, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development () recently affirmed that expost evaluation of the effectiveness of consumer education programs is a rare and difficult proposition because they are usually long‐term in nature, making it difficult to quantify the benefits. For earlier examples of expost evaluations see Bloom and Ford (), Hawkins (), Langrehr (), Langrehr and Mason (), and Monsma and Bannister ().…”

“…For clarification, the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (2009, 2010) recently affirmed that expost evaluation of the effectiveness of consumer education programs is a rare and difficult proposition because they are usually long-term in nature, making it difficult to quantify the benefits. For earlier examples of expost evaluations see Bloom and Ford (1979), Hawkins (1977), Langrehr (1979), Langrehr and Mason (1977), and Monsma and Bannister (1980). On another front, the author could have asked whether the architects of the various conceptual innovations (in their role as activist) had managed to convince others to take up their approach for (re)conceptualizing consumer education?…”