What Predicts Online Compulsive Buying?

Online shopping has been steadily growing in popularity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the new study published in Personality and Individual Differences was to investigate both the roles of a personality model validated in substance-related disorders and mindfulness in online compulsive buying (CB). Methods: A total of 534 individuals from university (n = 334) and online communities (n = 200) completed the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (i.e., Hopelessness, Anxiety Sensitivity, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking), the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale. Results: Analyses indicated that higher impulsivity, higher anxiety sensitivity and lower nonreactivity and awareness mindfulness scores predicted online CB. In addition, lower nonreactivity and awareness were found to partially mediate the relationship between high impulsivity and online CB. Specifically, lower awareness accounted for 30.77% of this relationship and lower nonreactivity accounted for 7.93% of the relationship between impulsivity and CB. These findings offer support for the conceptualization of CB as a behavioural addiction and suggest that mindfulness interventions may be useful in the context of reducing online CB. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

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