소비자파산의 특성과 파산원인에 관한 연구

There are few studies on the demographic and psychological characteristics of consumer bankrupts and the reasons of consumer bankruptcy, even though consumer bankruptcy has become a major legal, social and economic phenomenon. This is an exploratory study investigating what are the characteristics of consumer bankrupts and the reasons of consumer bankruptcy. For this study, an in-depth interview was used. The sample of this study was consisted of 7 selected cases from the consumer bankruptcy filers in Kwang-ju. The major findings were as follows. By the large, they were low class in background, as they were born from the family which was poor and couldn't escape from poverty still. And they were likely to have been younger when their parents stopped giving them pocket money and to report health problems. Also, they were unemployed or employed part-time. Relatively high other debts remained after discharge. So, there was no clue to assert that they abused the system. Their economic difficulty was the result of business failure, gambling addiction and mental illness. Also, the deregulation of credit provided the background for it. And contracts of name lending or suretyship with their family members and friends made them lose their private support system when they were in their economic difficulties. The conclusions for policy, counseling and education were reported.