Evaluation: A Comparative Protocol

Candidate Question And Comparator

Does access to the v0.2 package improve self-reported financial well-being more than a simpler financial-education package delivered with comparable contact time? A comparator could include a budget, debt inventory, reserve worksheet and neutral goal review. It must be fully specified before enrollment.

Candidate Primary Outcome And Estimand

Use the official CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale as a candidate primary measure, preserving its wording, administration and scoring rules. A candidate estimand is the intention-to-treat difference in mean official score at 12 weeks, adjusted for baseline score. This is a proposal, not a locked protocol or computed effect. [S02]

Secondary Outcomes And Adverse Effects

• Missed essential payments, overdrafts and new high-cost borrowing, with definitions fixed in advance.
• Cash-record completeness, reserve-policy attainment and decision comprehension.
• Time burden, distress or shame, conflict, avoidable overmonitoring and unwanted pressure to borrow.
• Retention, accessibility and distribution of outcomes across relevant circumstances.

What Must Be Locked Before An Efficacy Study

Finalize the intervention, comparator, randomization and allocation procedure, primary outcome, analysis population, missing-data method, follow-up window, multiplicity policy and stopping or harm-response rules. Select a justified meaningful difference and variance estimate before computing sample size. No effect size, power or minimally important difference is fabricated here.

Preregister the final protocol and analysis plan before outcome access, using an appropriate registry for the actual study. Report effect estimates and uncertainty, attrition, adverse outcomes and departures from the plan. A small uncontrolled pilot can justify revision, not a superiority claim.