Shopping addiction: A preliminary investigation among Maltese university students

Abstract

This article seeks to explore whether compulsive buying may be conceived of as a behavioural addiction and to identify compulsive buying's potential ability to regulate mood. Utilising a screened sample (from an original random sample of 400) of Maltese university students identified through standardised tools as compulsive shoppers, the article explores compulsive buying's parallels with other addictions and focusses on conceptualising the phenomenon as an attempt to manipulate hedonic tone. The method adopted is a sequential transformative strategy and is primarily qualitative although some quantitative work is engaged in to recruit a number of participants for in-depth interviewing. The goal is to contribute to the changing shape of the addiction field. The empirical data indicates that compulsive buying holds the same elements as behavioural addictions identified in the extensive literature on the subject. Furthermore, it was found that compulsive buyers often use shopping as a means of mood elevation. Pleasurable feelings associated with shopping seem to mask negative affect if only momentarily, thus perpetuating the compulsive buying cycle The heightened state experienced whilst shopping may be seen as a key motivating element of this addiction. Findings indicate that debt and financial instability were apparent negative consequences of the behaviour.