Financial
Counseling and Planning
The Journal of the
Association for Financial
Counseling and
Planning Education
Volume 15(2),
2004
Applying the
Transtheoretical Model of Change to Consumer Debt Behavior
Jing Jian Xiao, Barbara M. Newman, Janice M. Prochaska, Berta Leon,
Robert L. Bassett and Janet L. Johnson
The Transtheoretical
Model of Change (TMM) provided the framework for developing a measure
to assess readiness to get out of credit card debt with consumers who
are having credit card debt troubles. Key constructs of TTM include
stages of change, decisional balance, self-efficacy, and processes of
change. The items for the measure were developed by qualitative
interviews with experts in credit counseling and consumers with debt
troubles. A survey was then completed with a reliability and validity
of the measure. The results have potential for use by counseling
practitioners, educators and researchers.
Keywords: Behavior
modification, Consumer behavior, Credit card debt, Financial
management, Transtheoretical model