Research & Analysis

The Research
Library

Rigorous analysis at the intersection of behavioral science, polyvagal theory, and financial psychology.Each paper synthesizes peer-reviewed sources to illuminate the evidence behind our methodology.

Papers

438+

Sources Cited

2025

Latest

Featured ResearchFebruary 2026

How to Evaluate a Money Coach: Consumer Rights, Credentials, and FTC Guidance

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of public consumer-protection guidance relevant to buying coaching programs. It summarizes FTC advice on coaching offers, the federal Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429), California's home solicitation and seminar sales cancellation statutes, and what three coaching and counseling credentials do and do not show. It includes a practical checklist. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.

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Research Review: Why Most Money Advice Doesn't Work and What the Evidence Says

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of the studies behind the idea that money stress affects thinking and behavior, and that shame and avoidance make financial problems harder to fix. It separates what published studies found from what is still an open question.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Feb 2026•22 sources

Pressure, Urgency, and Consent: How to Evaluate a Money Offer

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team. It describes five features of pressure-based money offers, offers a plain checklist for evaluating any money coach, guru, or program, and sets out the standard we hold ourselves to. It is a practical framework drawn from our own editorial judgment, not a study, and it cites no outcome statistics.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Feb 2026•0 sources

Navigating Money Coaching Safely: Pressure Tactics, Cancellation Rights, and Practical Safeguards

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what the FTC says about pressure tactics in coaching offers, how the federal Cooling-Off Rule and certain California cancellation statutes work, and a short vetting checklist. General information only. This is not legal or financial advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Feb 2026•13 sources

Research Review: Why More Money Doesn't Always Quiet Money Worry

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what published studies do and do not show about money worry, income and wellbeing. Lottery and income studies suggest more money often helps, while some surveys find financial stress still common among high earners. Claims that money anxiety is mainly a nervous system or inherited phenomenon are working hypotheses, not established findings. This is educational content, not financial or medical advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Jan 2026•33 sources

Post-Holiday Financial Anxiety and Account-Checking Avoidance: A Research Review

Many people feel dread about checking their bank balance after the holidays, and some put it off. This review looks at what published research says about holiday debt, money-related stress, avoiding financial information, and the limits of financial education, and it describes a short, optional pre-check routine (GROUND) as a practical idea rather than a tested treatment. Where the research is lab-based, small, cross-sectional or contested, the text says so. This is a research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team. It is not medical or financial advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•21 sources

Research Analysis: How Do You Check Your Bank Account After the Holidays Without Panicking?

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what published studies do and do not show about money stress, avoiding financial information, and brief breathing and goal-setting practices.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•16 sources

Research Review: Why You Can't "Just Budget Better": The Nervous System Patterns Behind Money Struggles

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what published studies do and do not show about stress, avoidance, money beliefs and financial behavior. Where the evidence is thin or contested, the review says so.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•37 sources

Research Analysis: Why the Holidays Feel Like a Financial Failure (Even When You're Doing Fine)

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what survey data and published studies do and do not show about holiday money stress, scarcity, gift giving and emotion regulation. Several popular claims are flagged as contested or not verified.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•29 sources

Research Analysis: Why Financial Advice Fails Trauma Survivors (And What Actually Works)

A research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team of what the literature does and does not show about financial stress, scarcity, interoception and trauma-informed approaches. Some of the evidence is solid (scarcity and cognition, doom-spending survey data, financial hardship and brain-volume associations, documented childhood maltreatment and adult economic outcomes, and shame and financial withdrawal). Much of the claimed link between trauma, the autonomic nervous system and money behavior is theory or small-study evidence, and this review marks which is which. This is educational content, not medical, legal or financial advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•21 sources

Stress, Social Pressure and Holiday Spending: A Research Review

Holiday money stress is common, and it is not simply a willpower problem. This review looks at what published research does and does not show about stress, risk-taking, social belonging and gift-giving, alongside recent consumer survey data on holiday debt and obligation. It separates findings that are well supported from ideas that remain contested or untested.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•34 sources

Money Stress and the Nervous System: What the Research Supports and What Remains Theory

Money stress is common, and it can affect how people feel about looking at their finances. This research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team separates what published studies show (financial anxiety and avoidance, cortisol and risk-taking in a lab, shame and financial withdrawal, money scripts and advice-seeking) from what remains theory (polyvagal theory and its financial applications). It also summarizes the well-supported physiology of stress in the body and the evidence for breathing and biofeedback practices. It is educational and is not medical advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•28 sources

The Support Gap: Why Many Online Courses Go Unfinished, and What May Help

Completion rates for self-paced online courses are low: one study of 221 MOOCs found a median completion rate of 12.6% (Jordan, 2015). This paper examines the Support Gap, the disconnect between information delivery and implementation support, and reviews what the research says about co-regulation, accountability, and AI companions. Much of the evidence is limited or indirect, and polyvagal theory is a contested framework, so the proposals here are hypotheses, not proven fixes.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•43 sources

The Scarcity Mindset in an Age of Abundance: Financial Anxiety Among the Affluent

Money worry does not stop at a certain income. Industry surveys report financial stress and worry about making ends meet among households earning $150,000 to $200,000 and up, though these are single polls with limited published detail. This research review looks at what the sources actually support about why: lifestyle and comparison pressure, loss aversion, tying self-worth to net worth, and the particular pressures on affluent teenagers. It also sets out both sides of the scarcity and cognition debate, summarizes studies linking money worry to distress and to looking away from financial information, and separates what is measured from what is only commentary.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•25 sources

Money Scripts and Financial Inheritance: What the Research Does and Does Not Show

Many people notice that they handle money the way their parents did. This research review by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team looks at what is actually known. It covers the Klontz Money Script Inventory (KMSI) and the four money script patterns found in one 422-person pilot study, the limited human evidence on epigenetics and intergenerational stress (small, observational, and debated), the better-supported family and household routes (parental modeling, household money strain, childhood adversity and adult economic outcomes, income persistence), and the popular claims about childhood brainwaves and mirror neurons that the cited research does not test. It also describes practitioner tools for noticing money patterns, including genograms, cognitive restructuring and body-based practices, and says plainly where there is no financial-specific evidence. This is education, not medical or mental health advice.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•35 sources

The Psychological Architecture of Financial Decision-Making: An Analysis of Money Scripts

This research review looks at 'money scripts', beliefs about money that researchers believe form in childhood and shape adult financial behavior. It draws on the Klontz Money Script Inventory (Klontz, Britt, Mentzer & Klontz, 2011), which identifies four scripts: Money Avoidance, Money Worship, Money Status and Money Vigilance. In the original studies, Avoidance and Worship scores were associated with lower income and net worth, Status scores with lower income, and all three with several disordered money behaviors, while Vigilance scores were associated with fewer of them. These are associations from a single survey of 422 people, so they do not show that scripts cause outcomes. The review also notes that the revised inventory (KMSI-R) has reliability support from its developers but that a 2025 report did not support its four-factor structure, and it summarizes a published four-step framework for using the KMSI-R in financial planning conversations.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•9 sources

The Neurobiology of Execution: Re-evaluating the Knowing-Doing Gap Through the Lens of Nervous System Regulation

Why do intelligent, motivated individuals fail to act on knowledge they intellectually accept? This paper looks at the Knowing-Doing Gap through polyvagal theory and nervous system regulation, a contested framework. We distinguish Functional Freeze, a protective physiological state, from character-based explanations such as laziness. Evidence from online education (one study of 221 MOOCs found a median completion rate of 12.6%), coaching outcomes, and financial behavior research is limited and mostly indirect. We propose, as a hypothesis, a Regulation-First model centered on accountability, body doubling, and AI-enhanced support.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•64 sources

Reviewing Key Claims in Behavioral and Health Psychology Against Their Sources

This report checks five widely cited claims in behavioral and health psychology against their primary sources. Optimism is associated with lower mortality in large observational cohorts, though the association shrinks after adjusting for health and depression. In one 66-person migraine study, placebo effects accounted for a large share of pain relief. Self-efficacy theory is supported, with boundary conditions for measurement. In one university study, faculty beliefs about ability were associated with larger racial achievement gaps in STEM courses, a correlational finding. The report notes where evidence is observational, small, or contested.

MyMoneyCoach Research Team•Dec 2025•8 sources