Youth Debt in a Life-Course Context: Young Peopleʼs Ways into and out of Debt in Norway

Abstract

Young peopleʼs access to credit has increased over recent decades in line with financial deregulation and the digitalization of loan provision. This calls for a research approach that takes contextual features into consideration. Inspired by a life-course perspective and based on interviews with young people and debt advisors in Norway, we propose that ways both into and out of youth debt may be conceived as contextualized biographical processes. We suggest that ways into debt are characterized by three types of contextual factors: obligations, temptations, and expectations, while ways out are marked by three stages; realizing, sharing, and waiting. In addition, youth debt appears to be related to classed shame associated with financial mismanagement, and to normative and gendered milestones in transitions to adulthood.

Keywords

• debt
• welfare
• life course
• gender
• class
• shame