Personality Dimensions and Compulsive Buying Behavior among Female Students: A Predictive Analysis

Abstract

Background: Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD), also known as oniomania, is now becoming an increasing psychological issue for many students entering college. This condition affects more females attending college due to their unique pressures financially and socially during their transition into being independent.
Purpose: The intent of this study was to investigate if personality traits measured through the Big Five Personality Factors (Extraversions, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to New Experience) determined how compulsively a female student at Gujrat would engage in CBB.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from 500 female undergraduate and graduate degree students. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample size. The Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale (RCBS) and the Big Five Inventory-2 Short version (BFI-2XS) was used to measure. The study used Pearson product-moment correlation and a multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) using SPSS 26.
Results: The multiple regression analysis results indicated that only 3.6% of the variance in CBD could be explained by the Big Five Personality Factors; therefore this result marginal does not support to reject the null (p= .052). Alternatively, the analysis by each individual participant revealed that the two personality traits found to positively predict compulsive shopping were Extraversion (with a beta coefficient of .15 and a p-value of .011) and Neuroticism (with a beta coefficient of .16 and a p-value of .009). All three additional personality traits, i.e., Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience, were not found to predict compulsive shopping in the current sample. Therefore, it can be concluded from these findings that emotional instability and sociability are correlated with the likelihood to exhibit compulsive consumption among female college students. Even though only a small amount of variation in the compulsive consumption behavior was explained by the personality traits, the results suggest there is a need for developing targeted programs to foster the emotional regulation and social-capital-seeking behaviors of those exhibiting compulsive consumption behaviors through psychological treatment and financial literacy programs.