Community leaders will participate in a forum at the McClelland Park’s Conference Center at 7:45 Wednesday morning to discuss how the economic crisis has affected the well-being of  UA students.

A study conducted by the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences titled Arizona Pathways to Life Success for University Students, surveyed over 2,000 freshmen in their spring semester of 2008 about their financial attitudes and behaviors. These students became known as the “”APLUS”” students, said Joyce Serido, assistant research scientist for the School of Family and Consumer Sciences and the project manager and co-principal investigator for the study.

Of the original APLUS students, 748 students were surveyed again in their sophomore year this past spring. The study showed a significant change in the well-being of the students, Serido said.

“”Compared to one-year ago, students reported a drop in their psychological, physical, financial and academic well-being, a decrease in the quality of their relationships with friends, and a decline in their confidence about financial matters,”” she said.

Serido said she hopes the forum tomorrow will not only aid further research in the study, but also help recognize the APLUS students.

“”We hope that the participants will raise important questions about factors that may promote or prevent financial well-being so that we can address these with our research,”” she said. “”We also hope that the APLUS students will learn how important the information they provided is in helping us to understand the relation between financial behaviors in college and later success in life.””