Where might future research in the mental health and financial wellbeing space focus?
Context:
Academics have described the evidence landscape in this area as “immature…with some clear limitations” which posits the need for further research and investigation to better understand mental health and financial wellbeing.
This review looks at where future research might focus, to help build evidence in this area.
Where might future research focus?
- There is a lack of longitudinal studies and systematic reviews, both of which could provide further insight into the causality of the relationship between money and mental health. For example:
- How changes in money and mental health influence one another – do they improve and degrade together, or can changes occur independent of one another?
- Whether these patterns look different across gender, age, ethnicity etc. Some evidence suggests those of mixed ethnicity might face unique challenges.
- There is a lack of broad and systematic evidence to support how interventions in this space affect individuals long term – which could be address through the greater use of evaluation to understand such activity.
- Evidence suggests that people’s personal feelings about their financial situation might matter more than objective measures, especially for those with mental health problems. Further research could explore how this might play out for example:
- Whether this differs by individual characteristics.
- If these feelings might change over time, especially during times of crisis, or over the long-term at certain life events.
- Whether improving how someone ‘feels’ about their finances also helps with their mental health, and vice versa, and what interventions could achieve this if so.
- Evidence shows a smaller income gap amongst those experiencing long-lasting or severe mental health conditions compared to those experiencing common mental disorders, when you might expect the opposite.
- This could be due to the “shock” of mental health challenges, which is a phenomena picked up in the evidence, but more research is needed to understand this.
- There is limited evidence as to how money and mental health experiences affect children and young people, and how those experiences might shape the way they socialise in the home.
- There is a lack of evidence about the specific relationship between mental health and savings and retirement
- It is not clear however as to whether this is due to a lack of a connection between savings practices in theory, and mental health.
- New data from the most recent wave of the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey which took place in 2021 may provide new opportunities for analysis, as well as opportunities for longitudinal analysis.
What next?
Did you find this review helpful? We would like to know what you think. Please contact us at [email protected] with your feedback, and any suggestions for further research or evaluation that should be included in future updates.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston University for their contributions to our thematic reviews within the mental health space.
Bibliography
Aston University, ‘Money and Mental Health Rapid Evidence Review’, July 2023
