Do you want to avoid the hassle of traveling with your printed poster? IAPHS2026 is pleased to make poster printing available to you through our supplier PosterSessionOnline. Your poster will be professionally reviewed, printed and shipped directly to Portland and you will be able to pick it up from the Poster desk. Click here to learn more.
Primary Submission Category: Race/Ethnicity
Defining and validating multidimensional economic wellbeing among Black Emerging Adults
Authors: Frankie Greene, Sarah Andrea, Deborah Karasek, Holly Nishimura, Will Dow, Rain Mocello, Abigail Arons, Sheri Lippman, Margaret Libby, Marguerita Lightfoot,
Presenting Author: Frankie Greene*
Background: Economic security and independence are critical components of health and wellbeing, associated with access to health care, mental health, as well as chronic disease. Emerging adults (ages 18-24) experience the highest poverty rates of any age group in the U.S., with deep inequities by race. However, the multidimensional nature of economic well-being has not been explored or defined in emerging adults – making measurement a challenge.
Objective: This study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive conceptual model of economic wellbeing specifically tailored for Black emerging adults (BEA).
Methods: The project leverages baseline and 12-month follow-up data from a cohort of low-income BEA from San Francisco and Oakland who enrolled in BEEM guaranteed income and financial mentoring trial. Through a theoretical literature review and preliminary analysis, we have established six core domains of economic wellbeing for BEA and mapped available measures to each domain. As next steps, we are conducting initial Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to validate this conceptual model.
Results: Among a sample of 300 BEA, 41.3% indicated not having $400 to pay an emergency expense and 90% were food insecure, illustrating the degree of financial hardship. Correlations across constructs revealed sufficient variation across measures within domains to apply factor analysis. We developed 6 domains: Independence, investment in the future, stability and security, supporting others, supportive context/access to quality resources, and attaining desired lifestyle.
Conclusion: We will describe recommendations for a theoretically and empirically tested construct of financial wellbeing among BEA.