Socio-Psychological Peculiarities and Level of Financial Literacy of Russian Debtors

This article is devoted to investigation of role of financial literacy and socio-psychological factors in borrowing and debt behavior. Topicality of the problem is caused by necessity to understand the causes, except economic, leading to delays in debt repayment and therefore increasing debt burden. This work presents the basic theoretical approaches to the problem of debtors, debt behavior concepts and connections between debt behavior, financial literacy, social and demographic characteristics and personality traits in accordance with the results of international research. Results of empirical investigation are presented, which reflect differences in financial literacy and socio-psychological characteristics of non-borrowers, borrowers and debtors. In conclusion, debtors do not differ from borrowers, who pay their bills in due course, by social and demographic characteristics, but there is a significant difference in their psychological characteristics. Debtors demonstrate higher tolerance to debts and irrationality in debt behavior and lower level of conscientiousness than non-borrowers and borrowers/payers. Non-borrowers do not differ significantly from borrowers/payers in psychological characteristics but differ significantly from them in socio-demographic characteristics and financial literacy. Results got by the authors are in agreement with the data obtained in Russian and foreign scientific researches.

debtor, borrower, borrowing, debt behavior, debt repayment, financial literacy, debt literacy, socio-psychological characteristics, big five personality traits, locus of control, debt attitudes

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