Compulsive buying gradually increased during the first six months of the Covid-19 outbreak

Abstract

Background and aims: The current Covid-19 situation offers a natural experiment to explore the effect of a chronic stressor on compulsive buying tendencies over an extended period of time. Design: Survey method of sampling every three days a new cohort during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic (March-October 2020) in the United States. Participants: Total (clean) sample of N = 1,430 (39.3% female, mean age = 36.4 years). Measurements: Online and offline compulsive buying separately, distress, economic position, income and age were assessed. Findings: Both online and offline compulsive buying increased during the data collection period (τ = 0.24, τ = 0.22, respectively, both P < 0.001). Individuals with self-reported high economic position (EP) reported the highest tendency for compulsive buying throughout the entire time frame, although the increase in compulsive buying tendencies over time was the most pronounced among the economically less privileged. Online compulsive buying increased after the CARES Act (first stimulus package) by an effect size of d = 0.33. When entered into a regression model, EP had the strongest effect on compulsive buying after accounting for the effect of distress, income and age. The high-EP group reported the strongest correlation between distress and compulsive buying (r = 0.67, P < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.57-0.76). Conclusions: Compulsive buying tendency gradually increased during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic especially after the CARES Act.