Search Results
Title: Youth Debt, Mastery, and Self-Esteem: Class-Stratified Effects of Indebtedness on Self-Concept
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Dwyer, Rachel E. McCloud, Laura Hodson, Randy |
|
Youth Debt, Mastery, and Self-Esteem: Class-Stratified Effects of Indebtedness on Self-Concept Social Science Research 40,3 (May 2011): 727-741. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X11000299 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Academic Press, Inc. Keyword(s): Credit/Credit Constraint; Debt/Borrowing; Earnings; Economic Changes/Recession; Educational Attainment; Household Income; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); Self-Esteem; Self-Perception; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Stress; Student Loans / Student Aid Young adults at the turn of the 21st century came of age in a time of unprecedented access to credit but slowed growth in earnings, resulting in a dramatic increase in indebtedness. Debt has been little studied by sociologists, even though it is increasingly important in financing both attainment and a middle-class lifestyle, especially for youth in the transition to adulthood. We study the consequences of indebtedness for young adults’ sense of mastery and self-esteem as stratified by class. Young adulthood is a crucial developmental period for mastery and self-esteem, which then serve as a social psychological resource (or deficit) into the adult years. Research suggests that young people have divergent perspectives on debt: some focus on credit as a necessary investment in status attainment, while others worry that readily available credit invites improvidence that can erode the self-concept as debt encumbers achievement and future consumption and increases a sense of powerlessness. We find that both education and credit-card debt increase mastery and self-esteem, supporting the hypothesis that young people experience debt as an investment in the future, and contradicting the expectation that debt used to finance current spending will lower mastery and self-esteem. Our expectation that debt effects are accentuated for those of lower- and middle-class origins but blunted for those of upper-class origins is supported. We find, however, that the positive effects of debt appear to wane among the oldest young adults, suggesting the stresses of debt may mount with age. We conclude that further study of the long-term consequences of debt will be essential for advancing contemporary stratification theory and research. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Dwyer, Rachel E., Laura McCloud and Randy Hodson. "Youth Debt, Mastery, and Self-Esteem: Class-Stratified Effects of Indebtedness on Self-Concept ." Social Science Research 40,3 (May 2011): 727-741.
|