Introduction
In this modern world individuals are making
more use of online shopping and due to its
excessive use it has become an addiction, and
can cause compulsive buying behaviour and may
affect life satisfaction. As we know that world is
advancing and many people are being addicted to
internet, even due to covid-19 when lockdown
took place all shops used to be closed due to which people started online shopping more as
compare to past. Many people due to daily use of
online shopping are addicted to it they spend
hours on scrolling online products, and can shop
easily and compare prices of products on
different websites.
Online shopping addiction
Things which one gets through money exchange
are considered as shopping. As world is
advancing so does the shopping, because internet
has made shopping very easy by providing us
with many online stores, which has helped us in
buying things easily at home, as one can
compare prices of different products, and can
purchase the product of their own choice [1].
Individuals who are addicted to online shopping
spend more time on it, and ignore their social
circle, which can make them lonely and they can
have lack of love which can have negative affect
on their life satisfaction, and such individuals
can have low life satisfaction [2]. Individuals
who are always thinking about online shopping
are actually addicted to online shopping, these
individuals waste their precious time, and money
on online shopping, and this addiction and also
cause social problems in their life [3].
Compulsive Buying Behaviour
In compulsive buying individual cannot control
his desires and is unable to stop it. Individual’s
uncontrollable urge towards shopping and
buying when becomes an addiction it causes
negative outcomes [4]. Compulsive buying term
can be best classified as an addiction and can be
considered as obsessive compulsive disorder [5].
Compulsive buying behaviour is an addiction
which is basically under clinical disorder and this
buying behaviour can lead individual towards Many problems, stresses and many financial
losses. The study also shows that youngsters
have more compulsive buying tendencies than
people of older age [6]. Online shopping builds
compulsive buying behaviour in individuals as
study confirmed by comparing online buyers and
offline buyers and results highlighted that online
buyers have more compulsive buying behaviour
than offline buyers [7].
Many problems, stresses and many financial
losses. The study also shows that youngsters
have more compulsive buying tendencies than
people of older age [6]. Online shopping builds
compulsive buying behaviour in individuals as
study confirmed by comparing online buyers and
offline buyers and results highlighted that online
buyers have more compulsive buying behaviour
than offline buyers [7].
Life Satisfaction
Individuals can have negative relation with their
life satisfaction, happiness, and their quality of
life if they are addicted to internet or are addicted
to shopping through internet [8]. individuals who
are between age 18 to 24 years are more
compulsive buyers a study was conducted in US
which pointed out that about 3.5% to 9% of
students in US are facing this behavioral problem
and it can have many negative consequences
which can affect them financially,
psychologically such as it can build anxiety and
depression in an individual which can low their
level of satisfaction towards there life [9]. online
shopping addicts may have absence of emotional
needs in their life, and mostly women go through
this as for women it is not very easy to create
acceptance and affection with others very easily,
as its very challenging for them to keep
relationship (Figure 1) with others and hence
they are often lonely and frustrated and have low
sense of life satisfaction [10].
Hypotheses
1. Online shopping addiction is strong
predictor of compulsive buying behavior
and life satisfaction.
2. There is a significant negative relation
between compulsive buying behavior and
life satisfaction.
3. There is a significant negative relation between online shopping addiction and life
satisfaction.
4. There is a significant positive relation
between online shopping addiction and
compulsive buying behavior.
5. Female students will score high on online
shopping addiction and compulsive buying behavior as compare to male students
6. Male students will score high on life satisfaction as compare to female students.
Sample
There were 300 people in the sample 150 males
and 150 females. Sample was collected from
each of Pakistan's three major cities (Peshawar,
Islamabad, and Rawalpindi). Participants were
university students between the ages 20 to 30
years old. The sample for this study was
collected by using purposive sampling technique.
The goal of the study was explained to the
participants, which is to study the impact of
online shopping addiction on compulsive buying
behavior and life satisfaction among university
students. The duration of the study was 6
months.
Instruments
Online shopping addiction scale was developed.
The preliminary version of the measure had 27
items, each of which was scored on a five-point
Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree,
3=neither disagree nor agree, 4=agree, and
5=strongly agree). The final version had 18
items, as can be seen in the results section.
Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the
confirmatory and validation samples was 0.90
and 0.95, respectively. If the score is higher it
will indicate addiction towards online shopping
[11].
The Compulsive buying behavior screening tool
was developed by Maccarrone-Eaglen and
Schofield in 2017. This scale comprised of seven
items. The items were scored on five-point likert
scale from 5 strongly disagree to 1 strongly
agree. The score that is 22 to 28 is considered as
low level of compulsive buying behaviour while
the score that is 29 to 35 is considered as high
level of compulsivity. The seven-item construct
has high levels of both internal consistency and
construct validity. The composite reliability of
the scale is 0.85 [12].
The Satisfaction with Life Scale was developed
by Diener, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin in 1985.
The SWLS is a well-established and reliable
measure that consists of five statements that
represent a favorable assessment of life quality.
On a seven-point ordinal scale ranging from 7
strongly agree to 1 strongly disagree,
respondents evaluate their agreement with each.
The SWLS's alpha coefficients ranged from .79
to 89. The cut-offs score to be used as
benchmarks are 31-35 is extremely satisfied, 26-
30 is satisfied, 21-25 is slightly satisfied, 20 is neutral, 15-19 is slightly dissatisfied, 10-14 is
dissatisfied and 5-9 is extremely dissatisfied
[13].
Procedure
The study includes three variables and each of
them has their own scale. The questionnaire of
online shopping addiction which is used in the
present study had open access [14], while the
compulsive buying behaviour scale questionnaire
which is used in the present study was not open
to use so the scale was achieved by mailing it’s
author and he allowed us to use his scale in our
study [15], while the satisfaction of life scale
questionnaire which is also used in the present
study had open access [16]. The data is gathered
from 300 people of different universities of three
major cities of Pakistan (Islamabad, Rawalpindi
and Peshawar).The data was collected
physically. There were both male and female of
age 20 to 30 in the sample while below age 20
and above age 30 were not included in the
present study.
The importance and goal of the study was
explained to the participants. The data was
collected from participants by giving them a
questionnaire containing the English version of
the selected scales (OSA, CBBST, and SWLS).
They were led through instructions to carefully
read each item and select only one option that
best matches their scenario [17]. Participants
were assured that their responses will be kept
private. The gathered data is prepared before
being analyzed after it has been collected.
Missing data was checked in the datasets. After
then, the data was analyzed using statistical
software SPSS [18].
Results
Table 1 symbolizes the descriptive statistics, i.e.,
frequencies and categories concerning the
variables that were employed in the study. A
sample of 300 university students were taken
from Pakistan’s three major cities i.e., Peshawar,
Islamabad and Rawalpindi where 150 students
were males and 150 students were females. The
age limit for the present study were those
students who were between age 20 to 30 years
old and others were not included in the study.
The descriptive statistics revealed that 40% of
students were between ages 20-22, 27.3%
students were between age 23-25, 15.7%
students were between age 26-28 whereas 7.0%
students were between age 29-30. It also revealed that 75.3% were undergraduate students
while 24.7% were postgraduate students. It also
revealed that the data was equally divided between males and females as 50% participants
were males while 50% participants were females.
Table 1. Frequencies and percentages of demographic variables (N=300)
| Variables |
Category |
f(%) |
| Age |
20-22 |
120 (40) |
| 23-25 |
112 (37.3) |
| 26-28 |
47 (15.7) |
| 29-30 |
21 (7.0) |
| Gender |
Male |
150 (50) |
| Female |
150 (50) |
| Education |
Undergraduate |
226 (75.3) |
| Postgraduate |
74 (24.7) |
Note: f=frequency, %=percentage
Table 2 indicates the psychometric properties of
the Online Shopping Addiction Scale (OSAS),
Compulsive Buying Behavior (CBB), and
Satisfaction with Life (SWL) used in the present study along with mean, standard deviation,
range, skewness and kurtosis. The value of mean
is 43.99.
Table 2. Psychometric properties of all study scales (N=300)
| |
|
|
|
Range |
|
|
| Scales |
Items |
M |
SD |
Potential |
Actual |
Skewness |
Kurtosis |
| OSA |
18 |
43.99 |
16.8 |
18-90 |
18-90 |
0.6 |
-0.32 |
| CBB SWL |
7 |
19.04 |
6.15 |
Jul-35 |
Jul-35 |
0.19 |
-0.57 |
| |
5 |
23.35 |
7.05 |
May-35 |
5-35 |
-0.59 |
-0.4 |
Note: OSA=Online Shopping Addiction, CBB=Compulsive Buying Behavior, SWL= Satisfaction with Life,
SD=Standard Deviation, M=Mean.
19.04 and 23.35 which tells us about the average
group of scores whereas 16.80, 6.15 and 7.05 is
the value of Standard Deviation which indicates
that more of the data is dispersed around the
mean. The value of skewness are (.60, .19, -.59)
this which came in a respectable range of -1 and
+1 while the value of kurtosis are (-.32, -.57, -.40) this which came in a respectable range of -3
and +3 which indicates that the data is normally
distributed and appropriate for parametric testing
as it is acceptable.
Table 3 shows the cronbach’s alpha reliability
coefficient of online shopping addiction questionnaire, compulsive buying behavior
questionnaire and satisfaction with life
questionnaire. the results shows that all scales have high internal consistency cronbach’s alpha
reliability=0.96, .86, .86) which indicates they
are adequate for conducting further analysis.
Table 3. Cronbach’s alpha reliability of all study variables
| Scale |
No. of items |
Alpha reliability |
| Compulsive buying behavior |
18 |
0.96 |
| Online shopping addiction |
7 |
0.86 |
| Satisfaction with life |
5 |
0.86 |
Table 4 indicates that online shopping addiction
significantly predict compulsive buying behavior
and life satisfaction means online shopping
addiction have impact on compulsive buying
behavior and life satisfaction. Online shopping
addiction causes 53% variance in compulsive
buying behavior and standard error is .68 and it
causes 13% variance in life satisfaction and standard error is 1.06. The frequency is (346.04,
44.99) and p=0.000, p<0.05 which shows that
the results are significant. From the above table it
is concluded that the hypothesis 1 (Online
Shopping Addiction is strong predictor of
compulsive buying behavior and life satisfaction)
is proved true.
Table 4.Linear Regression Analysis used to see the impact of online shopping addiction on
compulsive buying behaviour and life satisfaction (N=300)
| Variables |
B |
S.E |
β |
P |
| Constant |
7.22 |
0.68 |
|
0 |
| OSA |
0.26 |
0.01 |
0.73 |
0 |
| R |
0.73 |
|
|
|
| R2 |
0.53 |
|
|
|
| ∆F |
346.04 |
|
|
|
| Constant |
30.04 |
1 |
|
|
| OSA |
-0.152 |
0.02 |
-0.36 |
0 |
| |
|
|
|
0 |
| R |
-0.362 |
|
|
|
| R2 |
0.131 |
|
|
|
| ∆F |
44.99 |
|
|
|
Table 5 indicates the correlation between all
study variables. There is significant correlation
between all the variables. The inception of online
shopping addiction (r=0.73**, p=0.01) has a
significant positive correlation between online
shopping addiction and compulsive buying behavior and has significant negative correlation
with life satisfaction (r=-0.36**, p=0.01).The
inception of compulsive buying behaviour (r=-
0.29**, p=0.01) has a significant negative
correlation between compulsive buying behavior
and life satisfaction.
Table 5. Bivariate Pearson Correlation between all study variables (N=300)
| |
Variables |
1 |
2 |
| 1 |
OSA |
- |
- |
| 2 |
CBB |
.73** |
- |
| 3 |
SWL |
-.36** |
-.29** |
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-
tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-
tailed).
Note: OSA: Online Shopping Addiction, CBB:
Compulsive Buying Behaviour,
SWL=Satisfaction with Life.
From the above table it is concluded that
hypothesis 2 (There is a significant positive
relation between online shopping addiction and
compulsive buying behaviour) hypothesis 3
(There is significant negative relation between
online shopping addiction and life satisfaction)
hypothesis 4 (There is significant negative
relation between compulsive buying behaviour
and life satisfaction) are proved true.
Table 6 shows the difference between male and
female university students on online shopping
addiction compulsive buying behaviour and life
satisfaction. Results indicates that Female
university students have more online shopping
addiction (M=49.17, SD=17.63) than male
university students (M=38.82, SD=14.19),
further results also indicates that female
university students have more tendency of
compulsive buying behaviour (M=19.89,
SD=6.57) than male university students
(M=18.21, SD=5.60), while male university
male university students are more satisfied with
their life (M=25.77, SD=6.30) than female
university students (M=20.93, SD=6.94) the p
value is (0.000, 0.019, 0.042), p<0.05 which
shows that the results are significant.
Table 6.Differences between Male and Female university students on online shopping addiction and
compulsive buying behavior (N=300).
| Variable |
Male |
Female |
|
|
|
|
|
| (n=150) |
(n=150) |
CI 95% |
| M(SD) |
M(SD) |
T |
P |
LL |
UL |
Cohen’s d |
| Online shopping addiction |
38.82(14.19) |
49.17(17.63) |
-5.6 |
0 |
-13.99 |
-6.71 |
0.64 |
| Compulsive buying behavior |
18.21(5.60) |
19.89(6.57) |
-2.38 |
0.01 |
-3.06 |
-0.29 |
0.27 |
| Life satisfaction |
25.77(6.30) |
20.93(6.94) |
6.32 |
0.04 |
3.33 |
6.35 |
0.73 |
Note: M=Mean, SD=Standard Deviation, LL=Lower Limit, UL=Upper Limit, CI=Confidence Interval
*p<0.05, **p<0.01
From the above table it is concluded that
hypothesis 5 (female students will score high on
online shopping addiction and compulsive
buying behaviour as compare to male students)
and hypothesis 6 (male students will score high
on life satisfaction as compare to female
students) are proved true.
Discussions
Present study is conducted to study impact of
online shopping addiction on compulsive buying
behaviour and life satisfaction among university
students. The study also highlighted the gender
differences on these three variables and
highlighted that female students scored high on online shopping addiction and compulsive
buying behaviour as compare to male students
and also highlighted that male students scored
high on life satisfaction as compare to female
students the existing literature also supported
this. The existing literature that was reviewed let
out the fact that online shopping addictions have
impact on compulsive buying behaviour and life
satisfaction. In order to conduct present study a
sample of 300 students were taken out of which
150 students were male and 150 students were
females ranging from age 20 to 30 years from
different universities of Pakistan’s three major
cities (Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar).
The sample was appropriate by purposive
sampling technique. Sample under study was
administered with online shopping addiction
questionnaire; compulsive buying behaviour
questionnaire and satisfaction with life
questionnaire, all of these questionnaires have
good reliability to gather the required data. After
collecting the data the results were analyzed by
using IBM SPSS software version 26. According
to hypothesis 1 online shopping addiction is
strong predictor of compulsive buying behaviour
and life satisfaction. Results also revealed that
online shopping is strong predictor of
compulsive buying behaviour and life
satisfaction.
It is consistent with the existing literature as
according to Xu and his colleagues (2022) online
shopping addiction is strong predictor of
compulsive buying behaviour as they both have
strong association between them. As according
to Rose and Dhandayudham (2014) in their study
explored that online shopping addiction is
predictor of negative emotions, low selfregulation, low self-esteem and all these factors
decreases the life satisfaction of individual they
highlighted in their study that online shopping
addiction is predictor of life satisfaction.
According to hypothesis 2 there is a significant
positive correlation between online shopping
addiction and compulsive buying behavior.
Results also showed a significant positive
correlation between online shopping addiction
and compulsive buying behaviour. It is
consistent with existing literature as Wang and Yang (2008) stated that online shopping
addiction is positively correlated to compulsive
buying behavior.
According to hypothesis 3 there is a significant
negative correlation between online shopping
addiction and life satisfaction. Results also
showed negative correlation between online
shopping addiction and life satisfaction. It is
consistent with existing literature as a study was
conducted by Bani-Rshaid and Alghraiben
(2017) revealed that online shopping addiction
leads individuals to negative consequences such
as they have lack of basic emotional needs, they
become lonely and have low life satisfaction.The
study concluded that online shopping addiction
negatively correlates with individual’s life
satisfaction.
According to hypothesis 4 there is a significant
negative correlation between compulsive buying
behaviour and life satisfaction. Results also
showed a negative correlation between
compulsive buying behaviour and life
satisfaction. It is consistent with existing
literature as a study was conducted by Otero-
Lopez and his colleagues (2011) who found out
that there is highly significant negative
correlation between compulsive buying
behaviour and life satisfaction which was also
confirmed by Zhang and his colleagues (2017).
According to hypothesis 5 female students will
score high on online shopping addiction and
compulsive buying behaviour as compare to
male students. Results also revealed that female
students scored high on online shopping
addiction and compulsive buying behaviour as
compare to male students. It is consistent with
the existing literature a study was conducted by
Neuner and his colleagues (2005) revealed that
females have more compulsive buying behaviour
as compare to males.
According to hypothesis 6 male students will
score high on life satisfaction as compare to
female students. Results also revealed that male
students scored high on life satisfaction as
compare to female students. It is consistent with
the existing research as according to a study
conducted by Otero Lopez and Vilardefrancos (2014) in Spain on 2159 participants found out
that as females have more compulsive buying
behavior which leads them more towards
negative symptoms than males as females have
more anxiety, depression which lowers their life
satisfaction more as compare to males.
Conclusion
The study investigated that online shopping
addiction leads to compulsive buying behaviour
and affect life satisfaction in university students
and it is observed during the study and finding
highlights that online shopping addiction is
predictor of compulsive buying behaviour and
life satisfaction among university students. The
study also concluded by the findings that online
shopping addiction is positively correlated to
compulsive buying behaviour while online
shopping addiction and compulsive buying
behaviour is negatively correlated with life
satisfaction among university students. It also
concluded that female students experience more
online shopping addiction and compulsive
buying behaviour and they have more negative
life satisfaction as compare to male students,
while with the help of this study we observed
that male students experience less online
shopping addiction and compulsive buying
behavior as compare to female students and they
are more satisfied with their life.
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