Beyond territory: multidimensional profile and self-regulation gap in financial education among 11 th-grade students in Colombia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0023-6411
This paper reanalyzes the empirical database of a doctoral study involving 900 11th-grade students, evenly distributed across Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Neiva, Pitalito, and Timaná, to identify where variation in financial education is actually concentrated. The instrument includes 25 items organized into five dimensions: perceived basic financial knowledge, budgeting and planning, saving and foresight, consumption and decision-making, and financial attitude and self-control. Scores were recalculated from item-level responses, the negatively worded item was reverse-coded, and internal consistency, territorial differences, institutional clustering, and differentiated family socioeconomic conditions were examined. The global scale showed high reliability (α = .937). The overall financial education index was favorable (M = 3.532; SD = 0.482), but financial attitude and self-control had the lowest mean (M = 3.400; SD = 0.506). The gap between this dimension and the average of the other four dimensions was 0.165 points and was statistically robust (t = 11.09; p < .001; d_z = .37). In contrast, overall differences across territories were not statistically detectable (F = 1.83; p = .104; η² = .010; Kruskal-Wallis p = .239), and the variance attributable to the 30 schools was negligible (ICC ≈ .0015). Household stratum, SISBEN classification, technological access, caregiver education, and main household income source likewise did not robustly differentiate the global index when analyzed as separate categorical conditions. The findings suggest that, in this sample, the main empirical signal is not an aggregate territorial gap but an internal self-regulation gap that remains relatively stable across contexts. This shifts the discussion away from monolithic socioeconomic explanations and toward mechanisms closer to financial behavior, socialization, autonomy, and habit formation.
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