Determining university students' financial literacy, attitudes, and behaviors and their relationship with socio-demographic factors

The aim of this study is to determine the financial literacy levels, financial attitudes, and financial behaviors of students at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University and to examine whether these variables differ according to socio-demographic factors. The study was conducted within the framework of the quantitative research method using a relational survey model. Data were collected between March and May 2025 through an online questionnaire administered to 358 volunteer students. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: demographic information, financial knowledge level, financial attitude, and financial behavior. The reliability coefficients (Cronbach's Alpha) of the scales were calculated as 0.700 for financial attitude and 0.776 for financial behavior. According to the findings, the financial literacy levels of the participants do not show a homogeneous distribution. Of the students, 30.17% exhibit very low, 17.04% low, 28.49% medium, and 24.30% high levels of financial literacy; accordingly, 47.21% are in the low and very low categories, while 52.79% are at a medium or higher level. In addition, it was determined that 72.9% of the students either do not save at all or save less than 5% of their income, and 46.6% do not engage in any investment activities. It was found that certain demographic variables created statistically significant differences in financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; the mean scores obtained from the financial attitude scale were higher for female students compared to male students, whereas male students had higher financial knowledge scores. Overall, the study reveals that university students' financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors exhibit a heterogeneous structure and present areas open to improvement.