The Individual Financial Access Scale (IFAS) development project represents a comprehensive three-year initiative to create the first validated, multidimensional measurement tool for financial access. Moving beyond traditional binary measures of basic product ownership, this study employed rigorous scale development methodology following established psychometric procedures across three distinct phases: conceptualization and item generation, pilot testing with 1,085 respondents, and validation with 4,094 nationally representative participants. The project utilized both Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory to develop two validated scale versions—a comprehensive 14-item and parsimonious 10-item tool—that capture financial access across three empirically-derived domains: Mainstream Financial Products and Services (focusing on wealth-building products), Institutional Practices of Financial Service Providers, and Individual Ability and Actions. Both versions demonstrated exceptional psychometric properties, with the 10-item scale achieving superior model fit (RMSEA=0.032, CFI=0.994, TLI=0.992). The scales employ sophisticated measurement approaches that assess not only product ownership but also availability, suitability, and perceived barriers to financial services. Standardized scoring tables enable conversion of raw scores to 0-30 point scales across domains, facilitating practical implementation by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. This work provides essential infrastructure for understanding and addressing financial access disparities, supporting evidence-based interventions that can improve consumer financial outcomes
Author(s): Jin Huang, Julie Birkenmaier, Yingying Zhang
