Factors influencing Blount County, Tennessee home demonstration club members' use of consumer credit

This study was concerned with the use of consumer credit by Home Demonstration Club members in Blount County, Tennessee, as a basis for planning educational programs. Data were secured by group inter-views from 237 Home Demonstration Club members, representing 24 clubs, who were present at their regularly scheduled club meetings. For purpose of analysis, data from the 237 Home Demonstration Club members were classified according to HDC members use of consumer credit: (1) HDC members who were using consumer credit; and (2) HDC members who were not using consumer credit. Of the 237 Home Demonstration Club members 162 were using some form of consumer credit and 75 were not. The purpose was to compare Home Demonstration Club members' use of consumer credit to their personal and family characteristics and the characteristics of consumer credit used. Twenty—two variables were identified and used as a basis for comparing Home Demonstration Club members' use of consumer credit (loans and credit cards). Contingency tables were used to show the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. Chi square statistical analysis was used to show the significance level of relations identified. Chi square values which achieved the .05 level were accepted as statistically significant, Computations were done by The University of Tennessee Computing Center. Major Findings Use of loans by Home Demonstration Club members was found to be significantly related to each of the following personal and/or family characteristic: age of respondents, marital status, place of residence, having one or more children, total number of children living at home, occupation of husband, total family income, use of credit cards, number of items purchased on credit, and feelings concerning overuse of credit. The data indicated that the directions of observed relationships were as follows. Home Demonstration Club members who had loans tended to: 1. Be younger than those who did not have loans; 2. Be married rather than widowed, single or divorced; 3. Live in Urban rather than farm areas; 4. Have one or more children; 5. Have a larger number of children than those who did not have loans; 6. Have a larger number of children living at home than those who did not have a loan; 7. Have husbands who were industrial workers or had a business or a profession other than farming; 8. Have higher family income than those who did not have a loan; 9. Make more use of credit cards than those who did not have a loan; 10. Purchase a larger number of items on credit than did those who did not have loans; and 11. Feel that their family overused rather than underused consumer credit. The Home Demonstration Club members' personal and family characteristics which were not significantly related to HDC members' use of consumer credit were: number of years served as a HDC member; level of education; and frequency of family income. Implications and recommendations were also made.