An economic psychology instrument measuring the evaluative and normative orientations that shape consumer debt behaviour. Lea, Webley & Walker (1995) situated consumer debt within a broader framework of money management and economic socialisation, demonstrating that attitudes toward debt are empirically distinct from actual indebtedness — consumers with positive debt attitudes and high normalisation of debt are more likely to carry revolving credit balances, use buy-now-pay-later services, and underestimate total debt obligations. ATD captures the functional-evaluative dimension (is debt a useful financial tool?); DN captures descriptive normalisation (is debt common and acceptable in society?); DI captures the moral-stigma dimension (is being in debt a sign of personal failure or social inferiority?). DI is negatively correlated with ATD and DN and is more prevalent in older cohorts and cultures with strong savings norms. ATD and DN predict credit card adoption, instalment purchase behaviour, and willingness to finance consumer durables; DI predicts avoidance of credit products and reluctance to disclose financial difficulties to advisors. The scale is widely used in consumer financial psychology, credit marketing, and financial wellbeing research.
Lea, S.E.G., Webley, P., & Walker, C.M. (1995). Psychological factors in consumer debt: Money management, economic socialisation, and credit use. Journal of Economic Psychology, 16(4), 681–701.
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