IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v84y2025ics0969698925000323.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial services mistreatment, financial access, and financial well-being: A causal mediation analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Birkenmaier, Julie
  • Zhang, Yingying
  • Huang, Jin

Abstract

Consumers interacting with mainstream financial services encounter mistreatment and unfair treatment. Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the consequences of such mistreatment on consumer financial well-being. This study investigates whether financial access—defined as the ownership of financial products and services—mediates the relationship between consumer experiences of mistreatment and their financial well-being. Employing the National Financial Well-Being Survey (NFWS) data from 6171 respondents, the research utilizes causal mediation analysis to assess the impact of financial services mistreatment on individuals' access to financial services and, subsequently, their financial well-being. Results reveal that mistreatment within financial services significantly impairs individual financial access, and further exacerbates consumers’ financial well-being. Research findings emphasize the need for interventions that not only address mistreatment directly but also enhance financial access to mitigate its negative effects on financial well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Birkenmaier, Julie & Zhang, Yingying & Huang, Jin, 2025. "Financial services mistreatment, financial access, and financial well-being: A causal mediation analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000323
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925000323
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104253?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000323. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.