Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Impulsive Buying Behavior in Male and Female Health Care Students

Abstract

The study explored the relationship between perceived stress and shopping addiction among 160 healthcare students, comparing male and female participants (N=160). To assess stress, we used the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS) was used to measure shopping addiction. The data was collected through Google Forms and evaluated using Pearson’s correlation (r). The findings revealed that there was a weak positive relationship between gender, perceived stress (r = 0.145, p = 0.068), and shopping addiction (r = 0.147, p = 0.064), although neither of them was statistically relevant. The relationship between perceived stress and shopping addiction was also weak and not statistically significant (r = 0.055, p = 0.490). The study concludes that gender differences have no significant impact on perceived stress or shopping addiction, and that confounding variables such as emotional control, impulsivity, and social effects might reduce the association between perceived stress and shopping addiction. Future studies should look at these aspects with bigger and more diverse sample sizes to further understand the relationship between stress and compulsive shopping behavior.