Assessment of online compulsive buying: Psychometric properties of the Italian compulsive online shopping scale (COSS)

Abstract

The rapid diffusion of the Internet has made doing things online in addition to in person possible. This has also lead to the emergence of new potential behavioural addictions related to the digital world, such as online shopping addiction. Given the peculiar features of cyberspace, the development of specific instruments for asseessing online shopping addiction appears to be of great importance to promote a better understanding of the phenomenon and effective clinical interventions. On this basis, this research aims to translate and validate the Compulsive Online Shopping Scale (COSS) for the Italian context. A sample of 397 Italian participants (Mage = 32.54 years, SD = 11.16) completed an online survey consisting of the Italian COSS, Edwards Compulsive Buying Scale, Internet Addiction Test, Yale‑Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale‑ Second Edition, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed the adequacy of the model fit to the data for a correlational solution with the same 7 factors of the original version: Salience¸ Mood modification¸ Conflict¸ Tolerance¸ Relapse¸ Withdrawal¸ and Problems. Furthermore, good indications of internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity emerged from the results. Therefore, the Italian COSS seems to be a valid and reliable self-report scale that can be used to assess the risk of compulsive online shopping among Italian-speaking individuals and may be useful for both research and clinical practice.