Measuring compulsive buying behaviour: psychometric validity of three different scales and prevalence in the general population and in shopping centres

Abstract

Due to the problems of measurement and the lack of nationally representative data, the extent of compulsive buying behaviour (CBB) is relatively unknown. The validity of three different instruments was tested: Edwards Compulsive Buying Scale (ECBS; Edwards, E.A., 1993. Development of a new scale for measuring compulsive buying behaviour. Financial Counseling and Planning. 4, 67-85), Questionnaire About Buying Behavior (QABB; Lejoyeux, M., Ades, J., 1994. Les achats pathologiques: une addiction comportementale. Neuro-Psy. 9, 25-32.) and Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale (RCBS; Ridgway, N.M., Kukar-Kinney, M., Monroe, K.B., 2008. An expanded conceptualization and a new measure of compulsive buying. Journal of Consumer Research. 35, 622-639.) using two independent samples. One was nationally representative of the Hungarian population (N=2710) while the other comprised shopping mall customers (N=1447). As a result, a new, four-factor solution for the ECBS was developed (Edwards Compulsive Buying Scale Revised (ECBS-R)), and confirmed the other two measures. Additionally, cut-off scores were defined for all measures. Results showed that the prevalence of CBB is 1.85% (with QABB) in the general population but significantly higher in shopping mall customers (8.7% with ECBS-R, 13.3% with QABB and 2.5% with RCBS-R). Conclusively, due to the diversity of content, each measure identifies a somewhat different CBB group.

Keywords: Behavioural addictions; Excessive shopping; General population; Instrument validation; Prevalence; Shopping addiction; Shopping malls.