Financial Literacy and Consumptive Behavior in the Digital Era: Evidence from Senior High School Students

Abstract

The rapid advancement of digital technology has broadened students' access to online shopping platforms, social media, and digital financial services, contributing to an increasingly uncontrolled consumptive tendency among students. This study examines the influence of financial literacy on students' consumptive behavior in the digital era. The study employs a quantitative explanatory approach involving a population of 200 tenth-grade students at SMAN 4 Bone. A sample of 40 students was determined through proportional stratified random sampling across six classes. Data were collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire that had been tested for validity and reliability, and were subsequently analyzed using simple linear regression with the assistance of IBM SPSS. The instrument testing showed that all statement items for both the financial literacy and consumptive behavior variables were valid and reliable. The regression analysis revealed a negative coefficient of -0.081 with a very small coefficient of determination (R Square) of 0.002, indicating that financial literacy accounted for only 0.2% of the variance in consumptive behavior, while the remaining 99.8% was explained by factors outside the model. These findings suggest that higher financial literacy is associated with a decline in consumptive tendencies, although the effect is relatively weak, as students' consumption patterns in the digital era are more strongly shaped by external factors such as social media, trends, and the ease of online transactions.