Negative affectivity, mania, and defense mechanisms in compulsive online buying-shopping disorder

 
Background: Even if online shopping behavior has increased in the last years, further amplified by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, there remains a notable scarcity of empirical data specifically addressing the affective and cognitive underlying mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of problematic online shopping behaviors. Recent research indicated that individuals with compulsive online buying-shopping disorder (CBSD) commonly experience concurrent mental health conditions, including mood, anxiety, and depressive disorders. While numerous studies explored the connections between negative/positive affective states and CBSD, there is a noticeable dearth of data concerning its correlation with an individual's psychological defenses. This study aims to analyze the interplay among compulsive buying behavior, negative affectivity, euphoric mood, and psychological defense mechanisms in the general population.
Methods: Two hundred and fifteen adults (32.1% males) aged between 19 and 65 were administered the Compulsive Online Shopping Scale (COSS) for the assessment of compulsive shopping behavior on the Internet, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), to measure psychological distress, the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), a screening tool for bipolar disorder, and the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scale-Self-Report-30 (DMRS-SR-30), an instrument assessing defense mechanisms. Data underwent correlational analysis, analysis of variance, and linear regression analysis.
Results: The correlation analysis revealed significant positive associations among COSS, MDQ, DASS-21, neurotic (mental inhibition and avoidance), and immature-depressive defense mechanisms, and a negative correlation between COSS and both age and mature defenses. Gender differences were only observed in COSS scores. To determine potential predictors of compulsive shopping, a hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted with COSS score as the dependent variable and gender, age, education, DASS-21, MDQ, and DMRS-SR-30 scores as independent variables. The results showed that DASS-21 Depression and Anxiety dimensions, MDQ total score, and high scores on the defensive category Neurotic, as measured by the DMRS-SR-30 were significant predictors of compulsive online shopping (R2adj = .41, F5, 214 = 30.70; p < .001). 
Conclusions: In line with previous research, our findings indicate gender differences in COSS scores, with women scoring higher than men. Moreover, the research results show that compulsive buyers have higher levels of anxiety, depression, and mania. More interestingly, our study demonstrated, for the first time, that immature defense mechanisms predict dysfunctional online buying behavior. Gaining insights into the functioning of defense mechanisms in individuals suffering from CBSD holds the potential to enhance our understanding of underlying psychological processes and inform therapeutic approaches.