This scale measures how much a person conceals their debt situation from friends and family to prevent others from finding out. Moorhouse, Goode, Cotte, and Widney (2023) used it across all six primary studies examining anticipated stigmatization and debt concealment.
7-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Reliability was reported only for Study 1, where it reached .80 (α = .84; Moorhouse et al. 2023, p. 1139). A confirmatory factor analysis showed the scale to be correlated with but distinct from a companion measure of anticipated stigmatization (AVE = .51). The scale was developed by the authors in cooperation with a financial-education company.
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.
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