Honors Projects

John RyanFollow

Abstract

This project sought to study issues of student poverty within the BGSU student population. To accomplish this, a survey was developed to gather data on student employment, material hardship, and financial status. The survey returned 1,502 responses, equating to a response rate of approximately 5%. Students reported substantial levels of financial anxiety across class standing and employment status, and a sizable minority reported frequently being unable to purchase basic necessities such as groceries, sanitary products, and laundry services. Though most respondents (71.69%) identified as female, enough identified as male to allow for a comparison between the reported financial anxiety and status of these two groups. Female respondents reported substantially higher anxiety levels than males, while financial status and employment outcomes were roughly identical between these groups. This study identifies several areas where further study and analysis is warranted, and the results provide university administration with some information with which to ameliorate some problems/hardship faced by the BGSU student population.

Department

Political Science

Major

Political Science

First Advisor

Neal Jesse

First Advisor Department

Political Science

Second Advisor

Katherine Sobota

Second Advisor Department

Economics

Publication Date

Spring 5-12-2019

Download

Share

COinS