14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers studying how teens and young adults handle the current economic crisis discovered that their study subjects are apparently feeling empowered by the debts they accumulated by using their credit cards, or with their education.
The same population group is plagued by extremely high unemployment rates. With the collapse of the housing market, numerous young adults were put at a significant financial disadvantage. These are all the more reasons for researchers not to find this link.
And yet, it is here. The young people whom the research team interviewed explained that they feel positive and empowered by their debts, rather than stressed about owing someone else money.
Even more interesting was the fact that those in the lowest economic class tended to experience the greatest degree of self-satisfaction with their debt. The researchers focused on a population group aged between 18 and 27, PsychCentral reports.
It was also found that, the more debts a person in the study group, the more he or she was likely to experience higher self-esteem and satisfaction. Stress began making its way back into the equation only when the researchers question people aged 28 to 34.
These were the oldest participants in the research, and even in this age group the level was stress was minimal, when compared to what scientists were expecting to find.
“Debt can be a good thing for young people – it can help them achieve goals that they couldn’t otherwise, like a college education,” Ohio State University sociologist Dr. Rachel Dwyer explains..
“Debt can be a positive resource for young adults, but it comes with some significant dangers. Young people seem to view debt mostly in just positive terms rather than as a potential burden,” she adds.
Participants for this study were selected from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 – Young Adults sample. More than 3,079 young adults were investigated, and the conclusions were published in a recent issue of the journal Social Science Research.
“The wealthiest young people have the most resources and options available to them, so debt is not an issue for them. The groups that most need the debt – the middle and lower classes – get the most benefits to their self-concept, but may also face the greatest difficulties in paying off what they owe,” the expert adds.
“By age 28, they may be realizing that they overestimated how much money they were going to earn in their jobs. When they took out the loans, they may have thought they would pay off their debts easily, and it is turning out that it is not as easy as they had hoped,” she concludes.