Loot box purchasing and indebtedness: The role of psychosocial factors and problem gambling.

Introduction: Loot boxes are increasingly common random-reward monetization mechanisms in digital games. They are popular among gamblers and pose various risks due to their gambling-like nature, but little is known about psychosocial vulnerabilities and financial consequences of purchasing them. This article examined psychosocial associations with self-reported increase in loot box purchasing and indebtedness among past-year gamblers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected in April 2021 from Finnish, Swedish, and British past-year gamblers aged 18 to 75 (n = 2,022). Measures of loneliness, psychological resilience, and problem gambling were studied in relation to loot box purchasing and indebtedness. Structural equation modeling was used as an analytical technique. Results: Loneliness was positively associated with self-reported increase in loot box purchasing. No evidence was found regarding the protective role of psychological resilience in loot box purchasing. Increased loot box purchasing was associated with problem gambling. Problem gambling mediated the relationship between loot box purchasing and indebtedness. Conclusions: The findings bring valuable insight into the psychosocial vulnerabilities and financial consequences in loot box purchasing. Loot box purchasing can add to one's financial strain particularly among vulnerable individuals such as problem gamblers, making it crucial to regulate such monetization practices.

Gender and maladaptive personality correlates in problem gambling and over-indebtedness: Novel findings from a cross-sectional study in Sweden.

Although most individuals consider gambling to be an innocent and fun activity, when it develops into problem gambling, it can have detrimental outcomes to one's life, such as over-indebtedness. This cross-sectional study explores the role of maladaptive personality traits and gender in both problem gambling and over-indebtedness, in an online sample of 1479 adult gamblers (65% males) in Sweden. Participants were administered the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form (PID-5-BF), and questions addressing subjective over-indebtedness and other risk factors. Quasi-Poisson loglinear models and logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Disinhibition (OR = 1.38, 95% CI [1.24, 1.53]), and Antagonism (OR = 1.23, 95% CI [1.14, 1.34]) showed the strongest associations to problem gambling, and that only Disinhibition (OR = 1.72, 95% CI [1.22, 1.43]) and Antagonism (OR = 2.00, 95% CI [1.52, 2.66]) were significantly related to over-indebtedness. The prevalence of problem gambling and over-indebtedness was more common among women, and gender moderated the univariate relationships of Negative Affectivity, Disinhibition and Psychoticism to problem gambling. These findings call for future research addressing maladaptive personality traits, problem gambling and over-indebtedness, and highlight the need for tailored interventions and prevention strategies, particularly for women who may be at higher risk.

The association between social support provision, psychological capital, subjective well-being and sense of indebtedness among undergraduates with low socioeconomic status.

BACKGROUND: Social support consists of receipt and provision in the interpersonal exchange process. Many studies have explored and verified the effect of received social support. This study focuses on whether and when social support provision can benefit the providers' positive psychological capital and subjective well-being. METHODS: A sample of 732 Chinese undergraduates with low socioeconomic status completed questionnaires on social support provision, psychological capital, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and sense of indebtedness. RESULTS: The correlation and regression analyses showed that impoverished college students' social support provision was positively associated with life satisfaction, positive affect, and psychological capital and negatively associated with negative affect. The interaction between the sense of indebtedness and social support provision was negatively associated with life satisfaction, positive affect, and psychological capital, not significantly associated with negative affect. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that giving social support can be as beneficial as receiving social support, and the sense of indebtedness can limit the benefits. Individuals with a lower sense of indebtedness are more likely to benefit from social support provision. The findings have implications for marginalized groups' subjective well-being and positive psychological capital and show the necessity of guiding individuals to provide social support while maintaining their autonomy.

Discussion of "The Asymmetric Impact of COVID-19: A Novel Approach to Quantifying Financial Distress across Industries".

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the associated lockdown measures have exerted significantly adverse effects on corporate sectors globally. Archanskaia et al. (2023) provide a novel empirical strategy to timely assess corporate financial distress in the EU. The contribution is two-fold. First, this paper's notion of financial distress considers both the equity position and corporate indebtedness. Second, the methodology proposed in this paper allows the authors to estimate corporate financial distress in the EU at a highly granular level and link micro-level simulations to sectoral macroeconomic outcomes. The methodology employed by Archanskaia et al. (2023) consists of three steps. First, the authors apply a nowcasting model to acquire monthly industrial turnover data. Second, they feed the obtained monthly industrial turnover into a profit-generating process via an accounting identity to estimate monthly firm profits at the firm level. Third, the authors use the estimated firm profits with a snapshot of information on pre-existing liquid assets to deduce the firm-level liquidity needs and the depletion of equity through the focus period during COVID-19. These estimated results on firm equity position and indebtedness enable the authors to quantity corporate financial distress in the EU via various angles (e.g., country-level heterogeneity, industry heterogeneity, and the targeting of COVID support policies). The primary advantage of this approach is that it deals with large datasets at the granular level and produces firm-level results almost in real-time. Therefore, it can help policymaking track the effects of crises over time. However, one can quickly critique this three-step approach for its susceptibility to the usual Lucas critique. That said, since the objective here is to estimate firm-level financial distress, a large structural model being more or less aggregate in nature, though able to mitigate the Lucas critique concern, will encounter significant challenges in estimating firm-level results with the requisite level of granularity offered by the available data. Therefore, I broadly concur with the authors' position that 'the specific contribution of this paper consists in striking a better balance between the need to carry out a multi-country evaluation of the pandemic's effects on industrial activity in a strongly integrated region like the EU and the difficulty of capturing time, industry, and country variation in turnover with sufficient granularity.'

Personal experiences of suicidality in women with gambling disorder - A qualitative interview study.

Background: Gambling disorder is associated with increased suicidality, especially in women who also are more likely to have psychiatric comorbid disorders and more often have experiences of traumatic life events. Although suicidality is increased and several risk factors have been identified, knowledge of the suicidal process is lacking, especially for women. Aim: To explore the lived experiences of suicidality in women with gambling disorder and to investigate potential factors involved in the development of suicidality. Method: Semi-structured interviews were held with seven women with experiences of gambling disorder and suicidality in Malmö, Sweden between November 2021 and June 2022, when saturation was reached. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded in NVivo. Qualitative content analysis was used to build categories and themes. Results: Several women had experienced suicidality before developing gambling disorder and gambling-related suicidality. However, for some, suicidality had appeared seemingly only due to the gambling disorder. Suicidality ranged from ideation to severe suicide attempts. Three themes of factors modulating suicidality related to gambling were found; a) guilt shame and self-stigmatization, b) loss of control/chaotic life circumstances, and c) social consequences/fear of guilt and shame from others. Conclusion: More research on the experience of suicidality in women with gambling disorder is needed. Attempts to address self-stigmatization, guilt, and shame in women with gambling disorder and society at large as well as aiding women to regain a sense of control over their economy and gambling may be ways to reduce suicidality.

Suicidal behaviour in over-indebted individuals: a cross-sectional study in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: Associations between debt and suicidal behaviour have been identified, but the research is sparse. Thus, more research is needed to understand the association between economic vulnerability and suicide. The study aimed to generate further knowledge about over-indebted individuals who have attempted suicide at least once. METHOD: Participants were a Swedish sample comprising 641 over-indebted individuals. The inclusion criteria were that the participants should be indebted and have been subjected to debt collection measures and/or seizure orders by the Swedish Enforcement Authority. Participants answered questionnaires regarding socio-demographic variables, debt size, history of suicide attempt, critical life events, and social contacts, and filled the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). In the statistical analyses, Chi2 test for independence and t-test was used, and binary logistic regression to adjust for the confounding effects of the variables on each other. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that nearly one in five (19.3%, N = 123) had attempted suicide at least once. A larger part of the respondents who had a history of suicide attempts reported that they were living alone (OR 2.30 (95% CI 1.34-3.89, p = .002). Many of those living alone were women (χ2 (1, n = 121) = 4.88, p = 0.03, ɸ = 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study point to the fact that economic vulnerability is an important psychosocial aspect to take into serious consideration concerning mental health and suicide prevention. Longitudinal research is needed to explain, predict and prevent suicide due to over-indebtedness.

Debt Problem of One Partner and Depressive Morbidity in the Other: A 2-Year Follow-up Register Study of Different-Sex Couples in Sweden.

This study sets out to examine whether depressive morbidity varies by status of financial indebtedness of a spouse or cohabiting partner. For this purpose, individuals aged between 20 and 60 with a different-sex spouse/cohabiting partner with a registration date for a debt at the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA) during 2017 (n = 6979) are followed-up for a 2-year period for prescriptions of antidepressants and compared with a sample from the general Swedish population (n = 29,708). The analysis is based on penalized maximum likelihood logistic regressions. Both women and men were more likely to suffer from depressive morbidity if the spouse/cohabiting partner had been registered at the SEA in 2017 and was still active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.31 and OR 1.57, respectively), irrespective of their own health, employment, socioeconomic status, and other background variables. This also held true for men if a wife/cohabiting partner had been registered at the SEA in 2017 but was no longer active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.29). For women, on the other hand, only those with no history (11-year period) of prescription of psychotropic medications were also at an enhanced risk of depressive morbidity if a husband/cohabiting partner had gone from being registered for a debt at the SEA in 2017, to not being registered as active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.24). The results reinforce the importance of acknowledging that negative effects of financial indebtedness extend beyond the individual debtor.

Changes in household debt due to COVID-19 and mental health concerns among adults in Ontario, Canada.

BACKGROUND: Canadian households experienced unexpected changes in their economic well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of the impact of the pandemic on household debt and its effect on health and mental health remains unknown. AIM: The aim of the study was to examine the associations of change in household debt due to COVID-19 with serious psychological distress (SPD) and general health measures. METHODS: Data were from the 2020 Monitor study, a repeated cross-sectional survey of adults 18 years and older in Ontario, Canada. The 2020 cycle employed a web-based panel survey of 3,033 adults. The survey included measures of change in household debt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental and general health. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated from logistic regression models accounting for sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: Overall, 17.5% of respondents reported that their household debt increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such an increase in household debt was significantly associated with SPD (OR = 2.92, 95% CI, 2.05-4.16), fair/poor mental health (OR = 2.02, 95% CI, 1.59-2.56), frequent mental distress days (OR = 1.80, 95% CI, 1.31-2.48), fair/poor general health (OR = 1.93, 95% CI, 1.47-2.52), and suicidal ideation (OR = 3.71, 95% CI, 2.41-5.70) after adjusting for potential confounders including education, income and employment. CONCLUSIONS: Household debt during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important determinant of health. Individuals who reported an increase in household debt due to COVID-19 were more likely to report serious mental health concerns including suicidal ideation. This suggests that debt-related interventions may be needed to alleviate the adverse effects of indebtedness on health.

Endividamento da classe trabalhadora no Brasil: elementos para análise a partir da categoria superexploração da força de trabalho / Indebtedness of the working class in Brazil: elements for analysis based on the category of overexploitation of the workforce

Resumo: Na era da financeirização do capital, o endividamento da classe trabalhadora tem se tornado um fenômeno global, presente tanto nas economias centrais, quanto na periferia do capitalismo. Este artigo contesta a pretensa homogeneidade desse fenômeno, evidenciando a vigência da categoria superexploração da força de trabalho para apreensão do modo particular - e altamente violento - com que o endividamento se expressa no Brasil.

Abstract: In the era of the financialization of capital, the indebtedness of the working class has become a global phenomenon, present in both the central economies and the periphery of capitalism. This article questions the supposed homogeneity of this phenomenon, highlighting the validity of the category of overexploitation of the workforce in order to understand the particular - and highly violent - way in which indebtedness is expressed in Brazil.

Indebtedness and mental health in China: the moderating roles of income and social support.

Objective: To explore the effect of indebtedness on mental health and the moderating effects of two types of coping resources (i.e., income and social support) in the Chinese context. Methods: 41,274 adults from four waves of China Family Panel Studies conducted in 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used for investigation. Pooled ordinary least squares regressions were used to examine the effect of indebtedness on mental health and the moderating effects of income and social support. Stata 16.0 was used to conduct data analysis. Results: The results showed that indebtedness had an adverse effect on mental health among Chinese adults. Furthermore, debtors with higher incomes showed fewer mental disorders than those with lower incomes. In terms of social support, monetary support from relatives was able to moderate the negative effects of indebtedness; however, the moderating effects of emotional support were negligible. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated the adverse mental health outcomes of indebtedness in emerging economies and highlighted that economic resources played protective roles against debtors' mental disorders.

Efecto del Endeudamiento Estudiantil en Salud Mental y Bienestar Subjetivo de Estudiantes de Educación Superior de Chile / Effect of Student Debt on Mental Health and Subjective Well-being on Chilean University Students

Resumen Objetivo: Identificar en qué medida la salud mental y bienestar subjetivo son predichas por el endeudamiento por motivos de estudio en estudiantes universitarios de la ciudad de Temuco, Chile. Método: Una muestra no probabilística de 151 estudiantes universitarios de quinto año o superior de su respectiva carrera universitaria respondió a medidas de salud mental (DASS-21), de bienestar subjetivo (satisfacción con la vida y felicidad subjetiva), y del nivel de endeudamiento asumido para financiar sus estudios universitarios. Los análisis incluyeron regresiones lineales múltiples jerárquicas donde se incluyeron como variables independientes la variable género en un primer paso y el endeudamiento por créditos universitarios en el segundo paso. En cada regresión se incluyó un factor de salud mental y de bienestar subjetivo como variable dependiente. Resultados: Resultados indican que el endeudamiento por motivos de estudio predice significativa- mente satisfacción con la vida (F(2, 148) = 5,95, p = 0,003, R2Adjusted = 0,06; β =-0,16, p = 0,049), pero no predice felicidad subjetiva (p = n.s.) (factores de bienestar subjetivo), sintomatología depresiva (p = n.s.), ansiosa (p = n.s.), ni estrés (p = n.s.) (factores de salud mental). Conclusión: Resultados del estudio sugieren que los estudiantes universitarios pudieran percibir el endeudamiento estudiantil como una inversión hacia el futuro lo que pudiera operar como un factor protector de su salud mental y bienestar subjetivo.

Abstract Objective: To evaluate if debt due to university loans predicts mental health and subjective well-being in university students of Temuco, Chile. Method: A non-probabilistic sample of 151 last-year university students completed measures of mental health (DASS-21), of subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, and subjective happiness), and debt levels due to student loans. Analyses included hierarchical multiple linear regressions where gender was entered in a first step and debt due to university loans on a second step as independent variables. Each regression considered a factor of mental health or a factor of subjective well-being as the dependent variable. Results: Results show that debt due to university loans predict predicts satisfaction with life (F(2, 148) = 5,95, p = 0,003, R2Adjusted = 0,06; β =-0,16, p = 0,049), but not subjective happiness (p = n.s.) (factors of subjective well-being), nor symptoms of depression (p = n.s.), anxiety (p = n.s.), or stress (p = n.s.) (factors of mental health). Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that university students may perceive student debt as an investment which may act as a protective factor of their mental health and subjective well-being.

Gambling-related suicides and suicidality: A systematic review of qualitative evidence.

The relationship between gambling and suicides or suicidality has received much research attention in recent years. Review studies have already mapped the quantitative occurrence of suicide attempts, suicides, and self-harm among gamblers, and found a positive association. Related comorbidities and conditions have also been charted in previous reviews. However, there is still a gap in knowledge regarding the actual processes that connect gambling and suicidal behavior. To understand these processes, the current paper conducts a systematic review of qualitative evidence on gambling-related suicides and suicidality. The aim was to identify the role of gambling as well as of confounding factors in suicidality, and what kind of support suicidal individuals have received or would need. We searched for relevant literature in seven scientific databases. We included all studies that presented empirical qualitative evidence on gambling-related suicide, suicidality and/or self-harm (N = 20). The results show two main processes that connect gambling and suicidal behavior: indebtedness and shame. At the same time, suicide is a multifactorial phenomenon, and related to other confounding factors. These include psychiatric conditions, personality traits, and life conditions. In many cases, these appear to emerge as a consequence of gambling. Treatment for suicidality has been effective in some cases, but indebtedness and shame may also function as barriers to help-seeking. We conclude that effective prevention is needed by adapting a more comprehensive public health approach and population-level interventions.

Gratitude endures while indebtedness persuades: investigating the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness in helping.

What is the temporal course of gratitude and indebtedness and how do these feelings influence helping in the context of reciprocity? In an online-game tapping real-life behaviour, Study 1 (N = 106) finds that while gratitude towards a benefactor remains elevated after an opportunity to reciprocate, indebtedness declines along with helping. Yet, indebtedness rather than gratitude better predicts real-life helping of a benefactor. Using a vignette-based experiment, Study 2 (N = 217) finds that after reciprocation indebtedness and likelihood of helping a benefactor reset to a baseline level while gratitude endures. Furthermore, the decrease in helping after reciprocation is better explained by indebtedness than by gratitude. Study 3 (N = 217) assessed the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness on helping by comparing contexts in which gratitude is at a baseline level but indebtedness is elevated (e.g. before a monetary payment for a service received) to contexts in which indebtedness is at a baseline level but gratitude is elevated (e.g. after reciprocation of benefits freely given by a friend). People are more likely to help in the former compared to latter context, and this difference is better explained by indebtedness rather than by gratitude. We discuss the interrelated and understudied relationships between gratitude, indebtedness, and reciprocity.

Unmet financial obligations and alcohol-related mortality: A nationwide register-based follow-up study.

This study sets out to explore whether experiencing financial indebtedness is related to alcohol-related mortality. For this purpose, people aged between 20 and 64 having a registration date for a debt in the Swedish Enforcement Authority's register during 2015 (n = 48,541) were followed up for a five-year period for alcohol-related mortality and were compared with a sample from the general Swedish population (n = 261,148). On the basis of logistic regression analysis, it is shown that people who had experienced financial indebtedness were almost two and a half times more likely to suffer from alcohol-related death than those who had not lived through this experience (OR = 2.43), controlling for several demographic, socio-economic, and health conditions prior to the date of the registration at the Enforcement Authority. The results provide support for the notion that debt repayment problems may, in itself, be an important indicator to consider in the study of alcohol-related harm. Consequently, debt counselling and other programs directed toward mitigating debt-related stress may play an important role in alleviating the adverse effects of indebtedness.

Gratitude Intervention Evokes Indebtedness: Moderated by Perceived Social Distance.

Previous study suggests that gratitude intervention evokes indebtedness among people from an interdependent society. This study furtherly hypothesized that perceived social distance moderates the effect of gratitude intervention on felt indebtedness. A total of 275 adolescents were randomly assigned to three gratitude intervention conditions, namely, writing gratitude to significant others, the health of one's own, or nothing. After completing the writing task, they rated their experienced emotions on ten dimensions, including gratitude and indebtedness. They also reported perceived social distance from surrounding people and other demographical information. Results indicated that participants in the condition of writing about gratitude to significant others felt indebted regardless of perceived social distance, while those in the condition of writing about gratitude to his/her own health and those in the control condition experienced lesser indebtedness as the perceived social distance with others becomes closer. Gratitude increases as perceived social connectedness increases across all conditions. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Climate Change and Household Debt in Rural India.

Climate change and indebtedness have been repeatedly highlighted as major causes of distress for rural households in India. However, despite the close connection between climate conditions and rural livelihoods, there has been little attempt to systematically examine the association between the two. To address this gap, we combine national-level longitudinal data from IHDS, MERRA-2, and the Indian Ministry of Agriculture to study the impact of climate anomalies on household indebtedness across rural India. Using a longitudinal approach that accounts for potential confounders at household, village, and district levels, we find pervasive effects of season-specific, five-year climate anomalies on multiple dimensions of household debt, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. Most notably, temperature anomalies in the winter cropping season in arid and semi-arid areas are associated with increasing household indebtedness. We further find that climate change interacts with existing socioeconomic differences-caste and landholding in particular-to deepen both the size and the depth of indebtedness for rural households.

Household Debt, Maternal Well-Being, and Child Adjustment in Germany: Examining the Family Stress Model by Family Structure.

The amount of household debt tripled globally over the last decades and a sizable share of individuals and families are overindebted due to mortgages, credit cards, or consumer debt. Yet research on the distribution of debt across families, and potential ripple effects of the psychological burden related to debt on well-being and family relations, remains sparse. Our study aims to fill these gaps by examining the socio-demographic profiles of families that have accumulated household debt and the unique role that the psychological burden related to debt plays on associations between mothers' well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment based on the Family Stress Model (FSM). We used representative survey data collected in 2019 from Germany (N = 3271), which is one of the richest economies worldwide, yet about 10% of adults reported to be overindebted. Logistic regression results showed that single mothers were less likely to have debt compared to mothers in two-parent families. However, both single mothers and mothers in stepfamilies with high levels of perceived economic strain were particularly likely to report having debt. Structural equation modeling yielded that the links between the psychological burden of debt, maternal well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment were largely in line with the FSM, except for single mothers. We conclude that persisting financial disparities by family structure may be partially fostered by unique characteristics of the German welfare state, such as promoting more a traditional two-parent norm, and discuss our findings in light of practical implications.

To approach or to avoid: The quadripolar model of achievement motivation revisited in a Confucian-heritage context.

Academic challenges and failure are inevitable in pursuit of higher education. According to the self-worth theory, trying hard but failing implies low ability that would be a threat to personal worth, thus preventing students from approaching academic challenges. Nevertheless, previous studies have shown that students in the Confucian-heritage contexts (CHCs) tend to persist rather than quit in the face of academic failure. According to the role obligation theory of self-cultivation (ROT), the CHC learners would perceive academic failure from personal and interpersonal perspectives. The former refers to personal obligations to exert oneself toward the ultimate good, and the latter refers to fulfilling filial obligations to parents by achieving academic excellence. Given the fundamental differences in learners' perceptions of academic failure between the CHCs and the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) contexts, this study examined the applicability of the quadripolar model of achievement motivation based on the self-worth theory in a CHC higher education institution. Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a two-factor model of fear of failure, including a personal and an interpersonal subfactor. Latent class analysis (LCA) showed that apart from the four existing categories of the quadripolar model, two additional CHC categories emerged and constituted half of the sample. The two CHC categories demonstrated different learner characteristics compared with their corresponding quadripolar categories in terms of levels of emotional distress and academic risk-taking tendency. The results may help debunk the myth that learner characteristics in the CHCs are identical to those observed in the WEIRD contexts. The fundamental differences in fear of failure further indicated the inadequacy of the self-worth theory in explaining achievement motivation in the CHCs where relationalism and role obligations are significant parts of the cultural traditions.

Evidências preliminares de validade de versão reduzida da escala de compra por impulso de Rook e Fisher / Preliminary Evidence of Validity of the Reduced Version of Rook and Fisher's Impulse Buying Scale

Resumo Introdução: A redução de escalas visa a redução da quantidade de itens, mantendo-se suas qualidades psicométricas. O presente estudo teve como objetivo a redução da versão brasileira da escala de compra por impulso de Rook e Fisher. Método: Participaram do estudo 1173 brasileiros, sendo 868 mulheres e 305 homens com a média de idade de 24.8 anos e desvio-padrão de 12.7. Todos os participantes foram contatados via redes sociais ou e-mail. A pesquisa foi dividida em três estudos. Resultados: No primeiro estudo, a estrutura unifatorial do instrumento foi corroborada, uma vez que a análise paralela sugeriu a retenção de um fator e os índices de ajuste foram acima de .95. Foram selecionados quatro itens para comporem a versão reduzida. O segundo estudo analisou a estrutura interna e as cargas fatoriais da escala reduzida por meio da análise fatorial exploratória e da análise fatorial confirmatória. Os resultados da análise fatorial exploratória foram semelhantes aos do estudo 1 e a análise fatorial confirmatória também apresentou índices de ajuste acima de .90. No terceiro estudo foram realizadas correlações para verificar o grau de diferença das correlações entre a escala reduzida e a original. Foram obtidas evidências de validade preditiva com as escalas de materialismo, consumo de status e propensão ao endividamento. Ainda, realizou-se uma análise fatorial confirmatória multigrupo que verificou a invariância do instrumento entre homens e mulheres. Conclusão: Conclui-se que a escala reduzida de compra por impulso, 4-CI, é considerada adequada para a mensuração desse construto.

Abstract Introduction: Scale reduction aims the reduction of the number of the items maintaining its psychometric properties. The goal of this study was to reduce the Brazilian version of Rook and Fisher's impulsive buying scale. Method: Participants were 1173 Brazilians, in which 868 were women and 305 were men with mean of age of 24.8 years old and a standard deviation of 12.7. All participants were recruited via social media or e-mail. The research was split in three. Results: In the first study, the unifactorial structure was supported, once the parallel analysis suggested the retention of one factor, and the fit indexes were superior to .95. Four items were selected to form the reduced version. The second study analyzed the internal structure and the factorial loadings of the reduced scale through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The results from the exploratory factor analysis were similar to those of study 1 and the confirmatory factor analysis also showed fit indexes above .90. In the third study, correlation analysis were run to verify the disparities between the reduced and the original scale. Predictive validity evidence was gathered with the materialism, consumption by status, and propension to indebtedness. Still, a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis verified the instrument invariance between men and women. Conclusion: It is concluded that the reduced impulsive buying scale, 4-CI, is considered adequate to the measurement of this construct.

Seasonal sugarcane harvesters of Gujarat: trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Based on primary data collected from the households of Dangs district in South Gujarat, India, the paper shows that every year a third of young adults migrate to Surat district and neighbouring areas for half a year to work as sugarcane harvesters. The data show that they live in temporary shelters in harsh conditions with bare minimum necessities and amenities. A large share of their earnings, much lower than the minimum wage rate for agricultural labour, is used to pay the labour contractors who provide cash advances during the lean post-monsoon months. Paying back the principal amount with hefty interest on it traps generations of migrant workers in the vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness.