Research on the Influencing Factors of Adolescents' Ability to Identify Digital Financial Risks

Abstract

Teenagers today grow up with mobile wallets, online shops, in-game currencies and short-video advertisements. This is both a convenience and a risk for young people because they may be targeted with phishing links, scams and “guaranteed profit” offers. In this paper, the simple question is asked – why are some adolescents far better than others at recognising these risks? Three hundred and twenty students in Grades 9–12 completed a questionnaire and a recognition test with 12 scenarios. The results indicate that the average student was able to correctly identify little more than 7 of the 12 risk scenarios. The four factors, which were clearly related to the higher score were: school financial education (r=0.52), family conversations about money (r=0.44), general digital literacy (r=0.38) and self-control (r=0.35). These factors, in combination with age accounted for approximately 47% of the variance among students. One of the most interesting results was the “confidence gap” in which about 63% of students overrated their own ability to spot a scam. The paper concludes that risk identification is not a natural ability and that the two biggest levers for doing a better job are in the school and family.