Consumer Education Knowledge Possessed by Selected Four-Year and Community College Students in Tennessee

The purpose of this study was to construct valid, reliable consumer education objective tests and to determine whether consumer education knowledge of community college students and four-year student who had taken a consumer education course were better informed than those college students who had not taken the course. Also, an effort was made to determine if there were certain variables which influence a student's personal finance knowledge. The variables that were studied were: (a) age; (b) sex; (c) work experience; and (d) major.

Procedures of Study. As a means of gathering the necessary data, it was necessary to examine 513 community college students and four-year college students in Tennessee. These students were asked to fill out a data sheet and take a 50, four-option, multiple choice items achievement test. The data were analyzed by using the t test and the analysis of variance with Duncan multiple range test.

Findings. Form A and Form B were not equated as indicated by a significant difference at the .05 level. Neither Form A or Form B reached an adequate level of reliability, although the reliability for Form b was greater than Form A.

No significant difference of personal finance knowledge was found between those students who had and those students who had not taken a course in Personal Finance. No significant difference in the scores of community college students and four-year college students who took a course in Personal Finance. When the analysis of variance was applied to the four independent variables, age, work experience and major were significant at the .05 level. The variable, sex, was not significant at the .05 level.

Recommendations. Both Form A and Form B should be consolidated into one test of 50 to 60 questions in order to improve reliability. Considerable effort should be made to improve the quality of instruction and the way consumer education is currently being delivered in Tennessee