Personality and Credit Card Misuse Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Impulsiveness

Credit card misuse has negative long-term consequences for marketers. The study investigates the role that personality plays in students' credit card misuse. Mowen's 3M hierarchical model of personality is applied to survey data from 254 college students; and four elemental personality traits—emotional instability, introversion, materialism, and the need for arousal—are found to be positively associated with credit card misuse. Impulsiveness emerges as a significant central trait that mediates these effects. Insights generated from the present study have important managerial implications for the development of programs that better serve the needs of college student credit card users.