Compulsive buying in adolescents. The impact of gender and alcohol and cannabis use

Abstract

The purpose of this study to analyse whether compulsive buying in teenagers is related to gender and alcohol and cannabis use in a sample of 573 students aged 14–17 from secondary education schools in Burgos (Spain) (M = 15.65; SD = 1.04). Random cluster sampling was performed to select the sample. The Compulsive Buying Questionnaire was used together with two extra promts: ‘Indicate how much alcohol you consume’ and ‘Indicate how much cannabis you take’. Descriptive statistics were used in data analysis, while MANOVA was used to study gender differences in alcohol and cannabis use, compulsive buying and their interaction. The results show higher scores for female compulsive buyers than for men, higher scores for alcohol and cannabis users’ compulsive buying than for non-users, respectively, and higher scores for female users than for male users. A certain interaction was also observed between alcohol and cannabis use. A higher alcohol consumption entailed a higher score in compulsive buying, with cannabis users who did not consume alcohol obtaining the highest scores. Thus, prevention programmes should consider teenagers’ gender and the risk of taking toxic substances.