Buying-shopping disorder, emotion dysregulation, coping and materialism: a comparative approach with gambling patients and young people and adolescents

Objective: The comorbidity between gambling disorder (GD) and buying-shopping disorder (BSD) has led to explore the core features that could be interacting between them. The main aim of this study was to examine the differences in both conditions considering emotion dysregulation, coping and materialism, as well as the relationship between these variables and their interaction with age and sex. Methods: A community sample (n = 281 adolescents) and a sample of individuals with GD (n = 31) was compared. Both samples were split into a group with BSD and a group without it. Results: The prevalence of participants who met the criteria for BSD was higher in the GD sample than in the community sample; the GD sample also presented higher values in the psychological variables studied. In the community sample group, positive associations were found between BSD severity and materialism and emotion dysregulation levels. In the GD sample, BSD severity was higher for participants who reported higher levels in materialism and lower scores in coping strategies. Variables impacted BSD severity differently according to sex and age covariates. Conclusions: The results of the interaction of the variables could be useful to design prevention and treatment approaches addressed to specific groups of age and sex.KEY POINTS Buying-shopping disorder (BSD) has been compared in clinical and community samples. The clinical sample was constituted by Gambling disorder (GD) patients. The variables emotion dysregulation, coping and materialism have been considered. Variables impacted BSD severity differently according to sex and age covariates.