Financial and Digital Literacy for Life Skills: Community Engagement at Junior High 43 Central Maluku

Abstract

The growing involvement of junior high school students in financial activities and digital technology requires applied life skills for everyday decision making. This community engagement program examined short term observed changes after an integrated financial and digital literacy intervention at State Junior High School 43 Central Maluku. Life skills were operationalized as financial decision-making and self-control, digital safety, and critical judgment. Twenty seven participating students joined a single day, practice based program that combined concise instruction, everyday case discussion, pocket-money and digital risk simulations, guided exercises, reflection, pretest-posttest assessment, and structured observation. The same six domain competency blueprint and scoring framework were used before and after the program. Quantitative results were analyzed descriptively and qualitative evidence was organized using predefined competency categories. The mean score increased from 53.78 (range 40-72) to 83.56 (range 72-96), an absolute gain of 29.78 points; the observed score span narrowed from 32 to 24 points. Indicator level and activity based evidence also showed stronger performance in budgeting and saving, personal data protection, digital risk recognition, and responsible digital media use. Because the evaluation used one group without a comparison group or longer follow-up, the findings are interpreted as short term observed improvement rather than causal or sustained behavioral effects.