2.1. Financial knowledge and financial attitudes

For people to participate in today's economy, they must have financial knowledge, especially young people, as they face financial decisions that have significant consequences for their lives.

Financial knowledge has been related to financial decisions and better economic outcomes in people who have higher levels of economic and financial discernment (Cude et al., 2020). Therefore, financial knowledge is prior to behavior (decision).

Potrich et al. (2016) point out that the acquisition of financial knowledge allows one to have attitudes and achieve mastery of skills in personal finance, which reflects the level of financial literacy of people, while Mejía, (2016) defines attitude as the preparation for a particular type of action; in other words, the attitude precedes the behavior (action).

Attitudes toward behavior are among the most important factors influencing financial management, classified as the importance of money, perceived financial success, financial management strategies, and gender role attitudes toward financial management (Utkarsh et al., 2020).

For Castro-Gonzáles et al. (2020) , attitude towards money mainly refers to an individual's careful (or not careful) handling of money. Assessing attitude involves getting closer to people's financial intention while revealing their preferences and priorities regarding the function of money and its value over time. Intention could be a determinant of your attitudes regarding the management of your finances (García et al., 2021).

On the other hand, Atkinson and Messy (2012) , based on empirical evidence, proposed concepts about financial knowledge in which they indicated that they were related to the level of cognition achieved as a result of the discernment of theories or concepts related to finances. Likewise, they indicated that financial attitudes are given by those negative or positive intentions towards the management of finances, which in turn is reflected in their behavior, making this an essential element of financial literacy. The positive outcomes of being financially literate are driven by behaviors such as spending planning and creating financial security; the opposite would indicate behaviors, such as excessive use of credit, which would reduce people's financial well-being.

According Villada et al. (2017) , financial knowledge has become an essential skill due to the instability of global markets, asymmetric information in those markets, the increasing complexity of financial products, and the rapid growth of financial technology. Saldarriaga (2018) has identified the importance of acquiring financial knowledge and developing financial attitudes to manage risks, take advantage of financial activities, and align financial decisions with long-term personal or family goals. In the same line Philippas and Avdoulas (2020) , pointed out that male college students who keep expense records or whose fathers have a higher education have better financial knowledge and are therefore, better able to cope with an unexpected financial shock. Therefore, financial literacy may be a key driver of financial well-being among college students.

In Greece, Riitsalu and Murakas (2019) found that people's financial well-being is affected by subjective and objective financial knowledge, behavior in managing personal finances, and socioeconomic status. Financial knowledge is the main element of financial education, which is essential for the sustainable development of people and society; and requires significant scientific research demonstrating its influence on people and the economy, including non-monetary payments (Swiecka et al., 2021). The proper use of personal finances is facilitated by having sufficient knowledge about the necessary tools to develop finances in a balanced way, avoiding losses and, ultimately, reducing debt (Guzmán, 2022).

A person who possesses only financial knowledge may not exhibit behaviors expected of financial well-being (Huston, 2010). People can be financially literate when they know how to take care of their finances. However, they cannot be called financially capable unless it is reflected in their actual behavior (Goyal & Kumar, 2021).

In this sense, Mena (2022) states that most young people have a medium level of financial literacy, derived from a low level of financial knowledge, a high level of financial attitudes, and a medium level of financial behavior. Evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and subsequent financial behaviors (Kaiser et al., 2022).

According to Korkmaz et al. (2021) , financial knowledge determined by the understanding of concepts positively influences the ability to take financial risks. Consequently, financial literacy increases inconsistency for the risk-averse and decreases it for the risk-seekers by increasing risk-taking behavior.

As Yaringaño (2021) points out, in the Peruvian academic environment in which business students operate, particularly those who belong to the last cycles of study, a broader knowledge of financial aspects is promoted since their plans of study have courses such as finance, banking risk, stock market, investments, etc., which determines a more successful integration to the use of increasingly complex or sophisticated financial services for students who belong to the business field, as well as Very useful for students of other careers.

Considering the above, the following hypothesis is proposed:

2.2. Financial skills and attitudes

Financial skill is related to a person's ability to explore and use financial information to manage decisions and actions. It is the articulation between financial knowledge and the development of tasks on financial information, a scenario from which problems are responded to, situations are analyzed, and decisions are made. Financial skills are varied: data analysis, goal setting, strategy definition, problem-solving, planning, and control, among others (Avendaño et al., 2021).

Financial management skills are associated with general money management, such as having a bank account, managing bill payments, managing credit, and budgeting (Sahul & Jia, 2021).

As pointed out by Mancebón and Ximénez (2020) , financial skills have a positive influence on the promotion of healthy financial practices, understood as those behaviors of individuals that can favor their ability to face adverse financial situations throughout their life cycle.

In a study, Dare et al. (2020) point out that, in the Netherlands, different specific characteristics of the students showed that the financial education program increased students' knowledge and skill scores in carrying out transactions effectively but not in spending responsibly. Financial education programs allow students to immediately apply what they learn in practice; they can improve students' knowledge and skills regarding certain financial competencies.

Likewise, León et al. (2021) indicate that developing financial skills helps improve the quality of individual life, for this reason, students estimate that having clear goals, having a high level of self-confidence, and being constant are the main reasons that prompted them to make better decisions in the field of finances. In the same line, Paredes et al. (2018) point out that the development of skills and abilities to manage money based on knowledge of financial products, correct financial planning, and the practice of savings allows making correct decisions about personal or professional finances in meeting the objectives to be achieved in the short, medium, and long term.

On the other hand, Yepes et al. (2019) state that although students know the importance of savings and have the financial knowledge to manage their expenses and income, they do not have the skills to plan their expenses, as they fall into daily improvisation and the consumption of unnecessary things, losing control their expenses, leading them to have higher levels of debt. Therefore, the management of the personal finances of university students depends on the lack of management and control of their savings, since to the extent that they do not save and spend more than their income, it affects the control and management of their income, which in many cases they are lower than expenses.

The creation of financial education programs specifically designed to improve financial education is the first step so that people, especially young people, can correctly use financial products and services that allow them to better achieve their economic well-being (Ramos, 2018).

Having financial skills also allows for better control of expenses and debt in university students; as pointed out by Valenzuela et al. (2022) , access to financial services and products increasingly in young populations does not seem to coincide with the improvement of financial skills generating new potential vulnerabilities. This mismatch can have important implications, for example, in terms of responsible credit management, adequacy of long-term savings and retirement, and the social, economic, and financial inclusion of future generations.

These findings are corroborated by Rey-Ares et al. (2022) , who indicate that Spanish students who have short-term planning skills show a more prudent attitude towards risks and make better financial decisions that allow them a better quality of life.

Given the evidence previously presented, the following hypothesis is raised:

The literature review leads to the following conceptual model where financial knowledge and financial skills directly and significantly affect financial attitudes (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Proposed theoretical model

3.1. Design and type of research

The research design corresponds to an empirical investigation with an associative and explanatory strategy with latent variables. In this design, the structural equation model will facilitate the simultaneous examination of a series of dependency relationships between the study variables (Ruíz et al., 2010).

The type of research corresponds to an ex post facto type, in which data is collected and explanatory hypotheses are proposed between variables in which only the independent variable is observed, not subjecting it to any manipulation (Rigo & Donolo, 2020).

3.2. Sample

Data collection was carried out in 2022 (the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic). Given the social isolation measures imposed by the Peruvian government to prevent the risk of contagion, three questionnaires were designed: two based on Avendaño et al. (2021) to measure financial knowledge and financial skills and another based on García et al. (2021) to measure financial attitudes. The questionnaires were adapted to the Peruvian reality and validated by one of the authors (see questionnaires and validation in Appendixes 1, 2, 3, and 4). Subsequently, they were sent online to students of Business from licensed universities in Tacna, Peru, in the last years of their studies, belonging to the professional careers of Accounting, Commercial engineering, Administration, International Business, Tourism and Hospitality, and Economics and Microfinance. In total, 700 students were reached.

In the first section of each questionnaire, an informed consent form was presented, along with the objectives of the study and a declaration of voluntary and anonymous participation, following the ethical principles of human research described in the Declaration of Helsinki.

The study sample was made up of students who answered all the questions in the questionnaires, a total of 531 university students belonging to the professional careers of: Accounting (44.3%); Commercial Engineering (20.4%); Administration (17.6%); International business (11.0%); Tourism and Hospitality (6.3%); and Economy and Microfinance (0.5%).

Of the total sample (531), 58.8% were women and 41.2% were men, aged between 18 and 25 years (84.3%); 26 to 30 years old (11.0%); 31 to 35 years (3.5%); and, 36-40 years (1.2%). 94.4% of the sample are single students, only 2.3% declared they were married, 1.6% have a partner. 54.8% are only studying, 26.2% are dependent workers, and 19. 0% declare themselves as independent workers.

3.3. Instrument and measurement of variables

The proposed conceptual model consists of 3 variables, two exogenous and one endogenous. The exogenous variables are made up of financial knowledge and skills that explain the endogenous variable: financial attitudes.

The construct of the exogenous variable financial knowledge consists of three dimensions (latent variables): passive financial products (items 1, 2, and 3), financial services (items 4, 5, 6, and 7); and active products (items 8, 9 and 10) of the Financial Knowledge Scale, with a Likert-type scale (see Table 1 and Appendix 1).

The construct of the exogenous variable financial skills is composed of the dimensions (latent variables): skills towards expense control (items 1, 2, and 3); skills towards debt financing (items 4, 5, 6, and 7); and, skills towards financial liquidity (which contain questions 8, 9 and 10), from the Financial Skills Scale, with a Likert-type scale (see Table 1 and Appendix 2).

The construct of the endogenous variable financial attitudes is made up of the dimensions (latent variables): attitudes towards financial planning (items 1, 2, and 3); attitudes towards savings (items 4, 5, 6, and 7); and attitudes towards investment (items 8, 9 and 10) of the Financial Attitudes Scale, with a Likert-type scale (see Table 1 and Appendix 3).

3.4. Analysis procedure

Data analysis was carried out with the SPSS v. 26 statistical program and IBM SPSS AMOSS v.24. The analysis of the reliability and validity of the construct of the variables began, also evaluating the collinearity of the variables. Likewise, the correlation of the variables and their dimensions was measured through the Pearson Coefficient.

In the final part, the model is projected taking into account the endogenous and exogenous variables, the latent variables, the observable variables, the error variables, and grouping variables, which will be determined taking into account the revised theory. Likewise, to prepare the structural equation model, the following fit indices were taken into account: CMIN/DF, which must meet the condition of <3.00 to be acceptable; the squared error rate (RMR) must meet the condition of close to (Escobedo et al., 2016) ); the error of approximation (RMSEA), whose condition must be <=0.05 (Rappaport et al., 2020) ; the normed fit index (NFI) must meet the condition of =>0.90 (Hong & Jacobucci, 2019) ; the CFI, whose acceptable range is =>0.90 (Rueda and Zapata, 2018). And, the parsimony adjustment measures (PRATIO, PNFI, PCFI) that must meet the condition of being greater than 0.5 (Medrano & Muñoz-Navarro, 2017). Likewise, SPSS AMOS 26 was used for the diagramming and calculations of indices, the results of which are detailed below.

4.1. Assessment of the Reliability of the Construct of Variables

Table 2 provides a meticulous evaluation of the construct reliability of the variables and their respective dimensions, utilizing Cronbach's Alpha coefficient as a measure. A critical observation to underscore is that all coefficients surpass the foundational threshold of 0.7, indicating strong reliability. Specifically, the financial knowledge and financial skills constructs achieved high coefficients of 0.89 each, while the financial attitude construct had a coefficient of 0.88. Additionally, the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) was used to analyze the constructs' variables further, yielding coefficients that surpass the minimum criterion of > 0.5.

Table 3 displays the collinearity values of the variables and their dimensions. The variance inflation factor (VIF) values obtained have an average of 1.65, which falls between the range of 1 and 5. This indicates that the predictor variables are moderately correlated.

4.2. Correlation of variables

The objective of the research was to determine the influence of knowledge and skills on the financial attitudes of Business university students enrolled in licensed universities in Tacna. To achieve this objective, the Pearson Correlation statistical test was employed to identify correlations between the exogenous variables (knowledge and skills) and the endogenous variable (financial attitudes). It can be highlighted that the variables with the highest level of correlation were: financial skills (FSK), with a correlation coefficient of 0.70, followed by passive products (PP) 0.85, and financial services (FS) 0.81. In contrast, the variables that demonstrated lower levels of correlation included expense control (CC) with a coefficient of 0.547, debt financing (DF) 0.40, and financial liquidity (FL) 0.329. Detailed results are comprehensively presented in Table 4.

4.3. Model Estimation

The proposed model considers financial attitude as an endogenous variable that is influenced by financial knowledge and financial skills. After estimating the model, satisfactory indices were observed, which fall within acceptable ranges of goodness of fit measures. These measures are detailed as follows: the CMIN/DF = 2.31 which satisfies the condition of being less than 3.00; the squared error rate (RMR) is 0.69 which meets the condition of being close to 0; the error of approximation (RMSEA) is 0.050 which meets the condition of being less than or equal to 0.05; the normed fit index (NFI) is 0.97 which is an acceptable range meeting the condition of being greater than or equal to 0.90; the CFI is 0.98 which is an acceptable range meeting the condition of being greater than or equal to 0.90. Moreover, the parsimony ratios are as follows: PRATIO (0.73), PNFI (0.72), and PCFI (0.72), which meet the condition of 0.5. Therefore, the proposed integrated explanatory model based on structural equations exhibits a high goodness of fit with the empirical data. It effectively explains the financial attitudes of Business university students through financial knowledge and skills.

It is also important to highlight that the model achieved an R-squared coefficient of 0.70, indicating that the financial knowledge and skills of university business students predict 70% of financial attitudes. Therefore, the model shows a high level of adjustment in the proposed theoretical model.

The results presented in Figure 2 indicate that financial knowledge has a direct and significant impact on financial attitude (p-value < 0.001). Specifically, it was found that 33% of financial attitudes among university business students from licensed universities in Tacna are determined by their financial knowledge, thus supporting Hypothesis H1.

Similarly, the study found that financial skills also have a direct and significant influence on financial attitude among university students of Business careers, with a p-value < 0.001. In fact, 64% of financial attitudes among university students of Business from licensed universities in Tacna were found to be determined by their financial skills, thus supporting Hypothesis H2 (See Figure 2).

Figure 2: Estimated final model