Title: Debt as a Lifestream: The Financialization of Daily Life and the Mimicry of Foreign Consumption Models in Uganda
Authors: Arinaitwe Julius, Ariyo Gracious Kazaara
Volume: 10
Issue: 3
Pages: 123-130
Publication Date: 2026/03/28
Abstract:
This study examined the financialization of daily life and the mimicry of foreign consumption models in Uganda, investigating how globalized media exposure, culturally-driven aspirational consumption, and expanded credit access interact to produce household over-indebtedness and financial distress. Employing a cross-sectional survey design with a stratified random sample of 420 households drawn from Kampala, Wakiso, Mbarara, and Gulu districts, the study collected primary data through structured questionnaires and analyzed them using a three-tiered statistical framework comprising univariate descriptive analysis, Spearman's bivariate correlation, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS version 24. Univariate findings revealed that 75.5% of sampled households were currently indebted, with 46.7% of indebted respondents citing household consumption as their primary borrowing motivation, and a mean debt-to-income ratio of 0.62 indicating widespread financial over-extension. Bivariate analysis produced significant positive correlations between foreign media exposure, aspirational consumption scores, debt-to-income ratios, and household financial distress scores (all rs > 0.38, p < 0.01), with the strongest association observed between the debt-to-income ratio and financial distress (rs = 0.743). The SEM, which demonstrated excellent model fit (CFI = 0.974, RMSEA = 0.028), confirmed a statistically significant sequential causal pathway in which foreign media exposure shaped aspirational consumption (? = 0.591, p < 0.001), which in turn drove debt accumulation (? = 0.643, p < 0.001), which subsequently produced household financial distress (? = 0.712, p < 0.001); the direct path from media exposure to financial distress was non-significant (? = 0.094, p = 0.204), indicating full mediation through aspirational consumption and debt. The study concluded that debt had become a structural lifestream in Ugandan daily life, sustained not by productive investment logic but by culturally mediated consumption mimicry operating through an increasingly accessible digital credit ecosystem. The study recommends culturally sensitive financial literacy programming, regulatory reform of digital lending platforms, and integration of consumption culture analysis into national development policy frameworks.