Research Questionnaire

On the Financial Well-being of Undergraduate Students

at Hong Kong Universities

Aim of the Study:

This project aims to study the financial well-being of undergraduate students in Hong Kong.

Confidentiality, Anonymity, and Data Collection:

You are not required to provide any information related to your personal identity. All the information
collected will be strictly confidential. All data collected in this research will be stored in a password
protected form. All of the information and data will only be assessed by the immediate research
team.

Participation and Withdrawal:

Your participation in this research project is totally voluntary. You may choose to withdraw from the
study at any point during the questionnaire completion. Once you have submitted the
questionnaire, we will not be able to delete your submitted data since the data are anonymous.

Contact Information/Questions:
If you have any questions as a result of reading this information sheet, you should ask the
researcher before the study begins or contact us at any time for more information. You may contact
Patricia Chow at b7044733@my.shu.ac.uk or Larissa Hon at b7044737@my.shu.ac.uk.

Questionnaire
Are you currently studying as an undergraduate in any university or tertiary education institution in
Hong Kong?

Yes I am a student of an undergraduate degree program in a university or tertiary education

institution in Hong Kong. (Please turn to p. 2).

Yes, I am a student of an associate degree, higher diploma, higher certificate or equivalent

programme in a tertiary education institution in Hong Kong. (Please turn to p. 2).

No, None of the above. (Thank you for your input! You have now finished the questionnaire).

Page 1 of 5
Part One
Consider the past six months.
Please rate how often you've thought about the following financial events 

using the following scale:

Not
Some- All the
# Applic Never Often
times time
-able

1
Being behind on payments
2
Having a low credit score
3
Being contacted by creditors
4
Having to declare bankruptcy
5 Not having any emergency money (eg savings
accounts, investments, etc.)
6
Running out of money at the end of pay period
7
Getting something repossessed
8
Being in a job where work isn't steady/predictable
9
Barely making enough money to cover expenses
10 Not making enough money to be able to cover
unexpected expenses
11
Worrying about having enough money to retire
12 Knowing you make less money than most of your
peers
13
Having large debt
14
Having loans with high interest rates
15
Being turned down for a loan
16
Holiday expenses
17
Expenses of other family members
18
Losing a job
19
Investments decrease in value
20 Having to borrow money from family/friends/
financial institutions
21 Service is turned off due to being behind in
payments
22 Paying mandatory expenses (eg taxes, school
fees)
Page 2 of 5
Part Two
How have you been feeling, in general, over the past four weeks?
For each of the items below, please tick the appropriate box that reflects your level of
response.
Have you recently:

Some-
# Often Seldom Never
times

1
Been able to concentrate on whatever you're doing?
2
Lost much sleep over worry?
3
Felt you were playing a useful part in things?
4
Felt capable of making decisions about things?
5
Felt constantly under strain?
6
Felt you couldn't overcome your difficulties?
7
Been able to enjoy your normal day to day activities?
8
Been able to face up to your problems?
9
Been feeling unhappy or depressed?
10
Been losing confidence in yourself?
11
Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person?
12
Been feeling reasonably happy, all things considered?

Part Three
Below are five statements that you may agree or disagree with. Using the scale below,
please tick the box that indicates your agreement with each item. Please be open and
honest in your responding.
Neither
Strongly Slightly Slightly Strongly
# agree
Agree
agree
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
disagree
disagree
1 In most ways my life is close to
ideal
2 The conditions of my life are
excellent
3 I am satisfied with my life

4 So far I have gotten the

important things I want in life

5 If I could live my life over, I

would change almost nothing

Page 3 of 5
Part Four
Please provide the following information. All information collected will be used solely to
produce statistics that will not reveal any personal information.

Please indicate (your):


1 Year of birth

Female Male
2 Gender

Never married Married No longer married

3 Marital status

None Part-time Full-time

4 Current engagement in a paid job

None Child/ children Other dependent(s)

5 Financial dependant(s)

Chinese English Other (please specify)

6 First Language

Chinese Other (please specify)

7 Ethnicity

Hong Kong Hong Kong

International
JUPAS Non-JUPAS
8 Type of enrolment

Whether you are studying full-time Full-time Part-time

9
or part-time

Highly Not Highly

Satisfied
Overall, how satisfied you are with unsatisfied satisfied satisfied
10
your academic results

First Second Third Fourth or later

11 Current year of study

Page 4 of 5
Debriefing
Thank you again for your time and participation in the study! The purpose of the questionnaire is
to study the financial well-being of current undergraduate students in Hong Kong.

The measuring instruments are drawn from the below references:

Northern, J.J., O’Brien, W.H., & Goetz, P.W. (2010). The development, evaluation, and validation of a
Financial Stress Scale for Undergraduate Students. Journal of College Student Development, 51, 79-92.

Goldberg, D.P., Gater, R., Sartorisu, N., Ustun, T.B., Piccinelli, M., Gureje, O., & Rutter, C. (1997). The
validity of two versions of the GHQ in the WHO study of mental illness in general health care.
Pscyhological Medicine, 27, 191-197.

Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of
Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

As mentioned above, your participation is completely voluntary. If you wish to withdraw from the
study now, please let the researcher know and your data will then be destroyed.

If you have further questions regarding the study, please contact Patricia Chow at
b7044733@my.shu.ac.uk or Larissa Hon at b7044737@my.shu.ac.uk.

Page 5 of 5