Regulatory Focus and Financial Satisfaction: The Sequential Mediating Roles of Construal Level and Opportunity Cost Consideration Among College Students

BACKGROUND: Recently, the importance of individual differences has been recognized in the literature of general life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction, however, empirical research exploring the relationship between individual differences in self-regulatory focus and financial satisfaction remains relatively sparse, and less is known about the underlying processes that may mediate this relationship. The current study addressed these gaps by investigating whether and how self-regulatory focus (promotion vs prevention) as a motivational trait is related to college students’ financial satisfaction. A model was tested in which this association was sequentially mediated by the effects of construal level and opportunity cost consideration. METHODS: A total of 552 college students (38.6% male; ages 19–25) completed a packet of questionnaires that measured trait regulatory focus, construal level, opportunity cost consideration, and financial satisfaction. RESULTS: The mediation model was tested via multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping procedure. The results supported a sequential mediation model, suggesting that predominantly promotion-focused regulation is associated with information construal at a more abstract level, increasing the consideration of opportunity costs, and subsequently enhancing financial satisfaction. DISCUSSION: These findings can broaden our understanding of how trait regulatory focus potentially influences financial satisfaction, offering new directions towards improving college students’ financial satisfaction.