Financial Stress and Well-being of Filipino Students: The Moderating Role of External Locus-of-hope Allan B. I. Bernardo University of Macau Katrina Fernando Resurreccion De La Salle University Abstract One of the core principles of positive psychology is that character strengths buffer the effects of adverse experiences on well-being. This study investigated whether external locus-of-hope (LOH) moderates the effects of financial stress on Filipino students’ well-being. Students from various universities answered questionnaires that included scales for financial stress, internal and external LOH, and satisfaction with life; all the relevant scales had good psychometric properties with the current sample. As expected, life satisfaction was negatively predicted by financial stress and positively predicted by three LOH dimensions. More importantly, external-family LOH moderated the relationship between financial stress and life satisfaction; there was no negative relationship between financial stress and life satisfaction among students with high external-family LOH. But the results also suggest that financial stress moderates the relationship between externalspiritual LOH and life satisfaction; external-spiritual LOH’s positive relationship with life satisfaction is found only among those who experience low financial stress. Keywords: financial stress, locus-of-hope, hope theory, well-being, life satisfaction, university students Critique Paper & Insights Research corpus concerning the perceived stress (financial, psychological, emotional, cognitive etc.) among Filipino students has seen a considerable increase in terms of both quantity and quality for the last few decades. On a much brighter note, the study at hand attempts to answer the questions and closely analyze the moderating effects of external locus-of-hope (LOH; external-family LOH and external-spiritual LOH) on the relationship between financial stress and well-being of students all while considering the context well within the scope of Filipino Psychology and inside the Filipino cultural background. Moreover, this research from Bernardo and Fernando (2018) proved to be a vital contribution to the trend of research that recently emerged following the trails of a research that investigates the stress felt by higher education students (Michie, Glachan, & Bray, 2001), also a study understanding the range of factors that causes students’ stressors (Robotham & Julian, 2006) and as well as the emergence of several psychological measures that is directly aimed to quantify the amount of stress felt by college students (Camacho, Cordero, & Perkins, 2016; Chan & Bernardo, 2017). Conclusively, the research’ results show that the external dimensions (externalfamily & external-spiritual) of LOH significantly affects ‘hope’ positively among students, thus affecting their way of interacting and reacting to things that happen beyond their own directive control. With this, we can theoretically implement the findings of this study to be beneficial for school counselors in mitigating and reducing the perceived feelings of financial stress among university students. Even so, the researchers also disclaimed the validity of their produced results because of the representation of their samples. It is lacking the needed representation for students residing in low-economic profile regions in the Philippines (see Discussion, p. 29). The results also support the idea that both internal and external dimensions of LOH should be treated as a complementary contributing factor to the development of one’s internal strength and/or hope. This notion can be an indicator of the need for new and emerging research to possibly touch on the subject of interdependability between internal and external LOH among university students who are experiencing academic-related stress and financial stress. More importantly, the study also suggests that university students who show higher levels of external-family LOH tend to seek help from their family members with regards to their financial inadequacies. Therefore making them feel more secure when faced against financial difficulties and the relationship between financial stress and life satisfaction felt among students can be addressed. Additionally, the body of research also implies that university students who subscribe to external-spiritual LOH may act differently depending on their current financial situation. To elaborate, students may feel positive manifestations of life satisfaction when they do not currently feel burdened by financial stress while conversely having high external-spiritual LOH. On the other hand, students that are facing financial adversity do not manifest the positive impacts of external-spiritual LOH. The aforementioned results show the positive implications and responsibility of internal strength (LOH) of students to cope with stress. As mentioned earlier, possible interventions to be implemented by school counselors that strengthen one’s internal character can be a beneficial factor in reducing the feelings of financial stress among students. The advantageous effects of the results of this study is not only limited to the effective effects of LOH on the relationship between financial stress and life-satisfaction among students; it can also be extended towards the multi-faceted nature of life satisfaction and how stress affects it. The objectivity of the research at hand proves to be beneficial to the target stakeholders. Although that is surely the case, the representation of the stakeholders are more skewed towards students who reside in more economically advanced regions in the Philippines where students may have lower frequency of experiencing financial stress; although we are not invalidating the experiences of those students who really are experiencing financial hardship in their lives. The crux of the matter is that the sample should be representative of the population of students who are indeed affected by financial stress to better grasp the implications of internal strengths and effects of external locus-of-hope in a much more detailed manner.
