Debt behavior express inventory: development and validation

Abstract

The current paper introduces the results of the short inventory of debt behavior approbation. The inventory is aimedto evaluate certain aspects of the debt behavior among various categories of respondents. Research within economic psychology was used as theoretical foundation: debt behavior, as a type of economic behavior, is closely connected with economic consciousness, including beliefs about debt, social attitudes, and values. For the study we specified three aspects of debt behavior: borrowing, lending and debt repayment. The study included 1058 respondents aged 17 to 82 years (M = 24.9, SD = 11.6), 623 (54%) women and 447 (39%) men, the rest 89 (8%) of them did not indicate gender. The express version of the inventory includes 14 statements. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed 3 subscales structure: “debt-related rationality-irrationality”, “avoidance-acceptance of debts”, “disapproval-tolerance for debtors”. The inventory showed acceptable measures of reliability and validity.