Attitudes Toward Institutional Features and Savings in Individual Development Accounts: Latent Class Analysis

This exploratory study focuses on classifying attitudes toward institutional features of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). This study also examines to what extent the attitudes change and how they are associated with savings in IDAs. While attitudes toward IDAs are generally positive, latent class analysis (LCA) found 3 groups, “highly positive”, “moderately positive”, and “mixed opinion”. Race is significantly associated with the classification. This study found dynamic changes in attitudes at 18 months and 48 months after the baseline interview. While attitudes became somewhat more positive for 18% of participants, they became more negative for 26%. It was also found that participants with a mixed attitude had significantly lower savings, suggesting that attitudes influence saving in IDAs.

Project: American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD)