Influence of Stress, Materialism and Self-Esteem in Adolescent Compulsive Buying

Compulsive buying behavior is characterized by an uncontrollable and irrational impulse that tends to manifest itself when individuals experience negative feelings. Despite being intensively researched, questions remain about what are drivers of compulsive shopping; especially in potentially vulnerable groups such as teenagers. Considering this gap, this study analyses compulsive buying behaviour, seeking to understand constraints from levels of self-esteem, materialism, stress and buying pleasure, specifically in adolescent consumers. Four hypotheses were raised from the literature review and tested with data collected from a sample of 153 respondents. To test the hypotheses, we performed a gamma family regression technique of generalized linear models using R software. Results show that factors such as stress, materialism and buying pleasure effectively influence adolescent compulsive buying behaviour, and it was found that self-esteem had no influence on the compulsiveness of survey respondents. This paper brings innovations on data operationalization and makes advancements in academic research about consumer compulsivity, generating knowledge for public policy-makers and social organizations oriented on consumer interests.