Shame, guilt, and debt: The experience of bankruptcy filers in the United States

Personal bankruptcy cases in the United States have skyrocketed over the past 5 years, increasing from 597, 965 cases in 2006 to 1,536,799 in 2010 (Administrative Office of the Courts, 2011).  Although many studies have debated the causes for this surge and others have provided a demographic profile of bankruptcy filers, little scholarly work has focused on the consequences that filing for bankruptcy has had on the mental and emotional health of individuals. Using multiple data sources, including in-depth interviews of bankruptcy filers in the Southeast United States, a database of bankruptcy filers from the Southeast United States, and the Familial Responses to Financial Instability Dataset (Furstenberg, Gauthier, and Pacholok 2009), I will examine the role that the social stigma of bankruptcy plays in the decision-making process leading up to filing for bankruptcy. I will also consider the consequences of stigma on the mental health of bankruptcy filers, highlighting gender differences.