A Study on the Effects of Compulsive Buying Behavior and Shopping Addiction on the Self-Esteem of College-Going Female Students

Several variables affect consumers’ propensities toward compulsive shopping. Consumers who are materialistic and suffer from shopping addiction struggle with illnesses that increase stress and reduce subjective well-being, and are unable to regulate their shopping habits, which in turn bring social and financial problems. Shopping addiction causes a person to be preoccupied with spending money and experiencing various satisfactions along the way. They start to have ideas, compulsions, and obsessions that get them ready to go shopping and spend money. This persists even though they are aware of the behavior’s unmistakable detrimental effects on their lives. The aim of the current research is to study the effect of compulsive buying behaviour and shopping addiction on the self-esteem of college-going female students. Standardized scales were used to measure shopping addiction, compulsive buying behaviour and self-esteem. The results found that compulsive buying behaviour and shopping addiction are negatively correlated. However, there seemed to be no significant correlation between self-esteem and shopping addiction. The validity of the clinical diagnosis of compulsive buying disorder is still up for debate. However, it is undeniable that some people are “addicted to shopping” and require treatment for their addiction. To further understand the behavior in terms of origin, prevalence, clinical characteristics, the course of the illness, and treatment, more research is required.