A URI College of Health Sciences graduate student has been named the 2020 Outstanding Symposium Student Paper award winner by the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education.

Beatrix Lavigueur, a master’s candidate in Human Development and Family Studies, has won the award for her paper, “Consumer Finance Scales Published in the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning: A Literature Review.” The paper examines consumer finance scales published in the journal, the official biannual peer-reviewed research journal of the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education. Lavigueur describes features of each scale and provides implications for both researchers and practitioners.

Fifteen scales published in 13 different papers were collected through the AFCPE website and analyzed based on target population, number of factors and items, reliability measures and use of validity. Scales were divided into six categories: financial wellbeing or strain scales, financial self-efficacy scales, financial behavior, financial management and decision styles, financial attitude scales and special purposes based on the topic of the paper and scale.

Lavigueur, a student of Professor Jing Jian Xiao, who focuses on consumer economics and personal finance. Laviguer’s paper will be published during the AFCPE annual Research and Training Symposium in November. The award also comes with a cash prize.