Effects of Financial Therapy Program to Improve Financial Health for Over-Spenders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a financial therapy program aimed at improving financial health for Korean consumers with overspending behavior and to evaluate its effectiveness. A group financial therapy program was designed to include both psychoeducation and financial literacy education and it consisted of 6 sessions of 4 steps. The program was provided once a week for a period of 4 weeks to 3 participants, and each meeting lasted 2.5 hours. To examine the effectiveness of the financial therapy program in modifying dysfunctional financial beliefs and behaviors, and thereby financial health of the participants, both the quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The program was found to be effective in reducing financial anxiety and dysfunctional financial beliefs and in improving financial security, money skills confidence, financial management behavior, and thereby financial health. Further research is needed, however, to validate these findings because of the small sample size and a lack of a control group.

Keywords: financial therapy, dysfunctional financial behavior, dysfunctional financial beliefs, financial health, effectiveness evaluation