Indebtedness in Early Adulthood

Jeanette Carlsson Hauff received a PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and is now an Assistant Professor at the same university. Her research focuses on consumer behaviour and financial services and she has been published in peer-reviewed international journals (such as European Journal of Marketing) and book chapters.

Tommy Gärling was the endowed professor of psychology at University of Gothenburg, Sweden from 1992 to 2006. He is a fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology (divisions of economic psychology, environmental psychology, traffic and transportation psychology) and was president of the environmental psychology division from 1998 to 2002.

Ted Lindblom is Professor at the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His current research mainly concerns industrial and financial management with particular focus on corporate finance, investment and financial structure decisions, banking, risk and regulation.

This book reviews problems with credit use and causes of indebtedness among young adults, while uncovering possibilities to encourage a healthier attitude towards loans in this segment of the population. Both consumption loans and mortgages are covered in order to adequately represent real-world credit use by young people about to enter adulthood. It focuses on three distinctive actors: the legislative authorities, the financial institution, most commonly a bank, and finally the individual borrower. More specifically, the book discusses the functioning of these three entities in the context of young adults borrowing behaviour, and would appeal to academics, researchers and students of financial institutions and banking.

Part A. Introduction to Young Adults' Indebtedness.- Chapter 1. Why Study Young Adults' Indebtedness?; Jeanette Carlsson Hauff, Tommy Gärling, and Ted Lindblom.- Chapter 2. Indebtedness, Over-indebtedness and Wellbeing; Viktor Elliot and Ted Lindblom.- Chapter 3. The Loan Market-the Swedish Example; Jeanette Carlsson Hauff, Ted Lindblom, and Jonas Nilsson.- Part B. Psychological Factors Explaining Young Adults' Indebtedness.- Chapter 4. Young Adults' Attitude Toward Borrowing; Amelie Gamble, Tommy Gärling, and Patrik Michaelsen.- Chapter 5. Young Adults' Consumption Desires, Feelings of Financial Scarcity, and Borrowing; Amelie Gamble, Tommy Gärling, and Patrik Michaelsen.- Part C. Financial Information and Young Adults' Borrowing Decisions.- Chapter 6. Impacts of Loan Communication on Young Adults' Borrowing; Jonas Nilsson and Jeanette Carlsson Hauff.- Chapter 7. Financial Literacy and Debt; Anders Carlander and Jeanette Carlsson Hauff.- Part D. Legislator Tools and Possibilities for Healthy Lending.- Chapter 8. Towards Soundness in Provision of Credits and Loans to Young Adults; Viktor Elliot and Ted Lindblom.