Psychometric Validation and Prevalence of Compulsive Buying Behavior in an Emerging Economy

Prevalence of compulsive buying varies toagreat extent that may be attributedto conceptual, methodological, cultural, sample, unreliable cutoff criteria and demographic differences in scales that measure this harmful behavior. This study aims to validate the psychometricproperties of two compulsive buyingscales; The Clinical Screener (TCS) and Compulsive Buying Index (CBI)developa universal consumer classification criterion. We collected data from systematically selected 2820 shopping mall consumers and 895 university studentsfrom Pakistan. We used exploratory factor analysis(EFA) for identifying new factor structures and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for validating factor structures. Revised-TCS yielded two dimensions; shopping anxiety and irresistible spending measured with five items. Whereas, Revised-CBI proved to bea four items unidimensional measure. Both scales exhibited satisfactory reliability and validity and correlated with their antecedents and consequences in theoretically predicted directions. About 29to 33% of shopping mall consumers and 28to 29%ofuniversity students were classified as compulsive buyers with Revised-TCS and Revised-CBI respectively. Compulsive buying scales provide a better preview of the phenomenon when their theoretical, methodological and cultural differences are adjusted. This study measured the prevalenceof compulsive buying with a new comprehensive universal classification continuum that categorizes consumers with respect totheir level of compulsiveness. Revised scales and classification scheme will help psychologist, financialcouncilors and other practitioners to identify affected compulsive consumers on multiple levels. The studywas limited to fashion clothing related productsin shopping mall consumers and university students.