Does compulsive buying differ between male and female students?

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between Compulsive Buying (CB) complaints and reactive temperament, effortful control, depression, and materialism by gender. One hundred and twenty-four male and 286 female students answered the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale, the 11-item Material Values Scale, the Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System Scale (BIS/BAS), and the Effortful Control Scale of the Adult Temperament Questionnaire–Short Form. As expected, in both genders CBS scores were strongly linked to materialism. For males but not females, depression scores were also associated with CBS scores. Only in women, high BAS reactivity and low effortful control additionally emerged as independent significant predictors for CBS scores. These findings highlight a clear gender difference of underlying factors of CB complaints.