Title: The Price of Proximity: Relational Debt, Social Disintegration, and the Critique of Easy Money Culture in Uganda
Authors: Arinaitwe Julius, Asiimwe Isaac Kazaara
Volume: 10
Issue: 3
Pages: 116-122
Publication Date: 2026/03/28
Abstract:
This study critically examined the relationship between easy money culture, relational debt, and social disintegration in Uganda, responding to a significant gap in the empirical and theoretical literature on how financial norms within intimate social networks drive the erosion of community cohesion. Conducted across four purposively selected districts - Kampala, Wakiso, Mbarara, and Gulu the study employed a mixed-methods design involving 420 respondents recruited through stratified random sampling, supplemented by 24 key informant interviews. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire measuring five latent constructs: Easy Money Culture Orientation (EMCO), Relational Debt Burden (RDB), Social Trust Erosion (STE), Community Solidarity Index (CSI), and Individual Coping Efficacy (ICE), and were analyzed using univariate descriptive statistics, Pearson's bivariate correlation analysis, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS version 24. Descriptive results revealed that easy money culture orientation (M = 3.74) and relational debt burden (M = 3.89) were both highly prevalent, while community solidarity (M = 2.41) and individual coping efficacy (M = 2.78) were notably low across the sample. Bivariate analysis confirmed strong positive associations between EMCO, RDB, and STE (r = .673 and .714 respectively, p < .01), alongside strong negative correlations between these exposure variables and community solidarity. The SEM model demonstrated excellent fit (CFI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.041, ?²/df = 1.33) and supported all eight hypothesized structural paths, with EMCO emerging as the dominant upstream driver of relational debt (? = 0.61), and social trust erosion as the strongest direct predictor of community solidarity collapse (? = ?0.53). A significant indirect pathway from easy money culture to community disintegration, fully mediated by relational debt and trust erosion (? = ?0.39), confirmed that cultural financial attitudes operate as community-level structural risk factors beyond their individual-level effects. The study concluded that easy money culture initiates a cascading relational harm cycle that systematically undermines Uganda's social fabric, and recommended the integration of relational financial literacy into development programming, the development of culturally grounded counter-narratives to easy money culture, and the establishment of community-based trust restoration mechanisms as priority responses to this emergent social crisis.