Benefits of Borrowing Money from Acquaintances during the Financial Crisis

Borrowing money from acquaintances during a financial crisis has the possible benefit of strengthening relationships with them, as a way of further developing social interaction and integration. A financial crisis is supposed to compromise the well-being of a person, including his or her physical functioning and his or her ability to maintain close relationships, which is likely to happen through socioeconomic change induced by the crisis. The effect of the change is likely to decrease because of the financial support obtained through borrowing money from acquaintances. The possibility of the effect and its alleviation is uncharted, because most studies have only tackled societal data and have not conducted an adequate examination at the personal level. This study surveyed 1,170 residents in Hong Kong about the effect of the financial crisis and related this effect to their functioning and close relationships. Results reveal that the experienced effect has a positive influence on socioeconomic change and negative influence on functioning and close relationships. Socioeconomic change, in turn, manifests negative effects on functioning and close relationships, and the effect on the latter is less negative given higher frequency of borrowing money. Therefore, this study finds a buffering effect of borrowing money to cushion stress invoked by a financial crisis, which agrees with the matching thesis of need-fulfillment theory. © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.