3. Method
3.1. Sample
Respondents were 189 college students from a large eastern university, who participated
as part of extra credit opportunities for required upper division course.
Each respondent participated in a 30-minute search session, consisting of 25–30 students.
The participants in our study ranged from 18 to 26 years of age, with a mean
age of 20.2 years. The mean credit card debt was $650, and mean debt overall was
$1760, with 25% owing more than $5000. Just over 50% of our sample indicated that
they maintain a budget of their finances.
3.2. Procedures
At the start of the research session, each participant was given a letter of consent
providing an overview of the study and general instructions. Due to the subjective
nature of what it means to maintain a budget, participants were provided with a definition
of budgeting in the instructions, prior to completing the questionnaire. Budgeting
was described as allotting all or part of their total financial resources (e.g.,
employment, loans, or parental support) into distinct categories in order to track
expenses, which can be written or electronically entered in a computer. After reading
and signing the letter of consent, respondents were administered a questionnaire that
operationalized the constructs in the model.
3.3. Measuring constructs
All variables were mean centered to reduce multi-collinearity between constructs.
Measures for each multi-item construct and associated internal consistency (assessed
using Cronbachs a) can be found in Appendix A. 2 Salient beliefs were identified
from an independent sample of individuals similar to those in the main study
(n ¼ 30). 3 The content of each of these items was generated by pretests with
open-ended questions. Measures for each cognitive structure (Pbiei) predictor can
be found in Appendix B.