Developing a Valid Measure of Financial Access: From Conceptualization to Empirical Testing

This comprehensive three-year project successfully developed and validated the first multidimensional individual financial access scale, addressing a critical gap in the measurement of financial well-being determinants. The resulting 10-item and 14-item scales represent a paradigm shift from ownership-based measures to a more nuanced assessment encompassing institutional practices, individual capabilities, and access to wealth-building financial products. Both scales demonstrated exceptional psychometric properties and provide researchers, practitioners and policymakers with robust tools for understanding individual financial access and addressing related barriers.

Financial access is more than having a bank account. In this webinar, Julie Birkenmaier, Ph.D., M.S.W., LCSW, and Jin Huang, Ph.D., present the Individual Financial Access Scale (IFAS) and explain how it measures access, opportunity and real-world financial capability, and why it matters for research and practice. This research project is funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education.