MAJCAFE

Husniyah A. R., Amirah Shazana M., Mohamad Fazli S., Mohd. Amin O
Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia

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Abstract

Homeownership contributes to better well-being; however, most owned a house through a mortgage loan which may increase debt commitment. The strain on finances was reported to result in negative consequences on households. Supported by Expected Utility Theory, this study aims to determine the factors influencing the financial strain and to ascertain the moderating effect of job satisfaction of Malaysian employees among homeowners. Multi-stage random sampling was utilised in targeting 400 respondents. Civil sector employees’ homeowners were selected to control the income risk. The list of government agencies enabled random sampling of the departments in urban and rural areas situated in four zones. A total of 50 respondents were randomly selected from each department through a list of names provided by liaison officers working in those departments. Selfadministered questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and 322 completed forms were returned. Influential factors on financial strain were debt behaviour followed by financial events, locus of control and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was found to moderate the influence of debt behaviour on the financial strain. Hence, effective debt management should be the focus of the employees as it results in financial strain. Employers should also ensure high job satisfaction among employees to overcome the effect of poor debt behaviour on financial strain. Ignoring these events may impact negatively on job performance as they will be disengaged from their work.

Keywords: Debt behaviour, Financial events, Locus control, Job satisfaction, Financial strain