Anticipated Debt Stigma

What it measures

The scale measures the extent to which a person expects to experience negative judgment and discrimination from others because of their financial situation. Moorhouse, Goode, Cotte, and Widney (2023) developed the scale by drawing on stigma research from other contexts, and used it across most of the studies in their article.

Response format

Likert scale, mostly 7-point (strongly disagree to strongly agree), though a 5-point version was used in one additional study

Scale items

• I’m concerned that if people knew about my financial situation, they would disapprove of me.
• Because of my financial situation, I worry about what others will think about me.
• People would have a negative attitude toward me if they knew about my consumer debt.
• People would treat me differently during social interactions if they were aware of my debt.
• People would not think I am capable of managing my own money wisely.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Reliability was reported for only some of the studies, ranging from α = .94 in Study 1 (Moorhouse et al. 2023, p. 1139) down to α = .75 in an additional study (Web Appendix D) — note this discrepancy when using the scale. Using Study 1 data, a CFA supported convergent and discriminant validity, with an AVE of .76 (Web Appendix A).

Citation

Moorhouse, Michael, Miranda Goode, June Cotte, and Jennifer Widney (2023), "Helping Those That Hide: Anticipated Stigmatization Drives Concealment and a Destructive Cycle of Debt," Journal of Marketing Research, 60 (6), 1135-1153.

Keywords

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