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“Like you failed at life”: Debt, health and neoliberal subjectivity

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  • Sweet, Elizabeth

Abstract

The need to more explicitly incorporate political economy and neoliberalism into research on social inequalities in health has been acknowledged across disciplines. This paper explores neoliberalism as it relates to consumer financial debt and internalized feelings of personal responsibility and failure for adults in Boston, Massachusetts. Using data from a mixed-methods study (n = 286), findings show that endorsing a neoliberalized view of personal debt as failure is associated with significantly worse health across a range of measures, including blood pressure, adiposity, self-reported physical and emotional symptoms, depression, anxiety, and perceived stress, even when controlling for several socio-demographic confounders. Results are discussed within the context of both neoliberal economic policies that funnel consumers into chronic debt and neoliberal sociocultural ideologies that promote self-judgments of indebtedness as personal failure. Findings highlight the importance of neoliberalism as an important contemporary social determinant of health and suggest new directions for research to explore.

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  • Sweet, Elizabeth, 2018. "“Like you failed at life”: Debt, health and neoliberal subjectivity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 86-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:212:y:2018:i:c:p:86-93
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.017
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Aapo Hiilamo, 2024. "Household Non-mortgage Debt and Depression in Older Adults in 22 Countries: What is the Role of Social Norms, Institutions and Macroeconomic Conditions?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 397-420, June.
    5. Han, Yang & Wei, Jianwen & Zhao, Yandong, 2021. "Long-term effects of housing damage on survivors’ health in rural China: Evidence from a survey 10 Years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    6. Angela M. O’Rand & Jenifer Hamil-Luker, 2020. "Landfall After the Perfect Storm: Cohort Differences in the Relationship Between Debt and Risk of Heart Attack," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2199-2220, December.
    7. Hani Kim & Uros Novakovic, 2021. "Towards Solving Health Inequities: A Method to Identify Ideological Operation in Global Health Programs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Swanton, Thomas B. & Gainsbury, Sally M., 2020. "Debt stress partly explains the relationship between problem gambling and comorbid mental health problems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    9. Barlow, P. & Thow, A.M., 2021. "Neoliberal discourse, actor power, and the politics of nutrition policy: A qualitative analysis of informal challenges to nutrition labelling regulations at the World Trade Organization, 2007–2019," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    10. Susan L. Prescott & Alan C. Logan, 2019. "Narrative Medicine Meets Planetary Health: Mindsets Matter in the Anthropocene," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, February.
    11. Hiilamo, Aapo, 2020. "Debt matters? Mental wellbeing of older adults with household debt in England," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106507, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Giorgos Gouzoulis & Panagiotis (Takis) Iliopoulos & Giorgos Galanis, 2023. "Financialization and the rise of atypical work," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 24-45, March.

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