Hopelessness and compulsive buying in young people: The mediating role of alexithymia

Compulsive buying is the persistent, excessive, and uncontrollable purchase of products, despite the consequences it entails, and it seems very present in the young population. An increase in this problem has been observed, and, in addition, it seems to share common characteristics with other addictions, although it is not cataloged as such in current psychopathological manuals. Previous research has related alexithymia and hopelessness to other behavioral addictions. Therefore, this research explores the relationship between compulsive buying behavior, alexithymia, and hopelessness. The objective is to observe whether these variables increase the probability of the problem of compulsive buying through a cross-sectional quantitative study in a young population. For this purpose, the Beck hopelessness Scale, the TAS-20, and the MULTICAGE CAD-4 were applied to a sample of 493 participants (78.5 % women). The results showed a positive relationship between the study variables. Also, different profiles were observed in young people with compulsive buying as a function of alexithymia and hopelessness. The results also indicated that alexithymia is a mediating variable in the relationship between hopelessness and compulsive buying. This is highly relevant, as it may be useful for understanding the formation, prevention, and treatment of compulsive buying, as well as for creating a theoretical framework and sample profiling.