RT Journal Article
T1 Life aspirations, generativity and compulsive buying in university students
A1 Otero López, Xosé Manuel
A1 Santiago Mariño, María José
A1 Castro Bolaño, Cristina
K1 Generativity
K1 Life aspirations
K1 Compulsive buying
K1 University students
AB The study of goal-oriented behaviour, because of its undeniable repercussions on physical and mental health, is one of the target topics of contemporary research. However, the content of life aspirations, emphasised from the self-determination theory, has received little attention from the field of compulsive buying although it plays an important role in the regulation of behaviour and well-being. Generativity, the personal construct that captures the intentions and/or the need to contribute (leave a legacy) to others, has never been analysed with respect to compulsive buying although it has been the source of interest of  related fields (responsible consumption). Accordingly, this study seeks to shed light on the role of both constructs (life aspirations and generativity) in compulsive buying among university students. The sample consisted of 1093 Spanish university students classified either as non-compulsive buyers or compulsive buyers. Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying was 7.9%. The results of Student’s test confirm that, besides gender (women report greater propensity to the phenomenon), compulsive buyers score higher and show statistically significant differences with respect to non-compulsive buyers in all extrinsic goals (financial success, image, popularity and conformity) and hedonism. Non-compulsive buyers show significantly higher scores for the intrinsic goals of self-acceptance, affiliation and community  feeling and also report a higher generative concern. The logistic regression analysis confirms that being female and the life aspirations of image, popularity and hedonism act as risk factors in compulsive buying in university students while generativity and the importance granted to the intrinsic goals of  self-acceptance and affiliation are protective factors. Potential lines of action for this worrying phenomenon are discussed in the light of the findings.
PB MDPI
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27520
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27520
LA eng
NO Otero-López, J.M.; Santiago, M.J.; Castro, M.C. Life aspirations, generativity and compulsive buying in university students. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 8060
NO The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Xunta de Galicia for funding the project “La adicción a la compra una aproximación multidimensional y longitudinal” (PGIDIT06PXIB241124PR) which has allowed them to begin and consolidate this line of research
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026