Abstract

The Compulsive Behavior Syndromeis the exacerbation of a daily socially accepted behavior, which makes difficult to distinguish between normal and pathological consumption. The aims of the study are to evaluate: 1) the incidence of the compulsive buying behavior in a sample of consumers; 2) the relation with the frequency of buying; 3) the predictive validity of personality factors and social determinants. The sample was composed by 398 subjects (111 males, 287 females) aged between 18 and 54 years. Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) have been used as psychometric tools along with a buying frequency questionnaire. A tendency to compulsive buying behavior was observed in 10.3% of our sample and was positively correlated with the buying frequency. Regression analyses show that anxiety and related disorders were significantly higher in the group with the tendency to compulsive buying.