Relationship of Credit Attitude and Debt to Self-Esteem and Locus of Control in College-Age Consumers

Abstract

College-age consumers are one of the groups most highly targeted by credit card marketers. While some college students use their credit cards wisely, others are unable to control their spending. The objective of this study was to investigate differences in attitude toward credit cards and the psychological factors of self-esteem and locus of control among college students who possess one or more credit cards. Attitude was operationalized to include three underlying components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. We separated credit users into subcategories based on amount of installment debt. Convenience users were defined as those consumers who paid the credit-card balance in full each month. Installment users were classified as consumers who carried a balance month-to-month. Convenience users were compared to mild and heavy installment users to assess significance of differences in attitudinal and psychological factors. There were no significant differences in the psychological factors across the credit-card user groups. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference on each of the attitude components (knowledge/beliefs, affect, and behavior) across user groups; convenience users, mild installment, and heavy installment users.

Locus of control and home mortgage loan behaviour

“…DeSarbo and Edwards (1996) revealed that people with external locus of control (externals) are likely to exhibit less control over their creditcard spending habits and have higher credit-card bills, which is consistent with the results in previous studies (Davies & Lea, 1995;O'Guinn & Faber, 1989;Tokunaga, 1993). This is because externals tend to be less independent and less confident in their abilities (Pinto et al, 2004). These studies seem to lead to the conclusion that externals would show more behaviour leading to debt.…”

“…Across multiple disciplines in financial behaviour, the study of debt behaviour represents a prominent area of research. The culmination of findings has identified a number of factors, both individual and social, influencing and/or predicting debt behaviours, such as attitudes (Livingstone & Lunt, 1992), social support (Lea, Webley, & Levine, 1993), money management styles (Lea & Webley, 1995), social comparison (Chien & DeVaney, 2001), and selfesteem (Pinto, Mansfield, & Parente, 2004).…”

Compulsive buying and credit card misuse among credit card holders: The roles of self-esteem, materialism, impulsive buying and budget constraint

“…Credit card misuse is more likely to implicate this group of individual because most of the time compulsive buying happens in consumers who are very concerned about their appearance to others and attempt to be pleasing others (Krueger, 1988).Empirically, there is no significant relationship between self-esteem and credit card debt (Pinto, Mansfield & Parente, 2004).…”

What Determines University Students’ Online Consumer Credit? Evidence From China

“…Some studies have investigated the factors that influence college students' consuming behavior (especially online shopping) and their attitudes toward consumer credit (e.g., Barboza, 2018;Jiang & Dunn, 2013;Oksanen, Aaltonen, Majamaa, & Rantala, 2017;Pinto et al, 2004;J. Wang & Xiao, 2009).…”

“…In addition, the frequency of use of credit cards can affect attitudes toward credit by influencing expectations of a personal financial crisis (Pinto, Mansfield, & Parente, 2004). Moreover, external factors such as family communication, a consumer society, and the media can affect credit attitudes (Pinto et al, 2004). Credit card holders tend to have positive attitudes toward credit because of their greater familiarity and lower anxiety about online shopping (Kiyici, 2012).…”