Pathological buying on the rise? Compensative and compulsive buying in Poland in the pre- and (Post-)pandemic times.

The study concerns the development of compensative and compulsive buying in Poland comparing the results of three waves of a cross-sectional study conducted before and at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six predictors of susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying are in focus: materialism, self-esteem, gender, age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the importance of the first four predictors in explaining compensative and compulsive buying is already very well described in the literature, while the novelty consists in the predictive model including the variables that describe frequency of online shopping and negative experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as coronavirus infection, hospitalization or death of a loved one. On the one hand, a stronger susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying could be a reaction to these negative experiences of the pandemic; on the other hand, the increased frequency of online shopping as a result of the pandemic may be an important factor in the development of compensative and compulsive buying due to the easy implementation of purchase acts and weaker social control. To achieve the above research objectives, the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI) was used to measure susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying. The data were obtained within three waves of the study (2010, 2019, 2022) based on a random sample of about 1,000 respondents representing statistically the general adult population. Drawing on this study, the prevalence of compensative and compulsive buying is observed at 12-19% and 2-4%. The predictors of GCBI are materialism, self-esteem, gender in all examined models and additionally age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in selected models. Although the findings related to the role of materialism, self-esteem, and gender in the prediction of GCBI reflect the results reported in the literature, the analogous conclusions about age, online shopping, and experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic are different from the established opinions. The commonly reported effect of age becomes statistically significant when the examined population is limited to Gens Y and Z. Although extensive online shopping co-exists with compensative and compulsive buying in the total population, the obtained data lead to reverse conclusions in the case of women's subpopulation representing Gens Y and Z. The negative experience with the COVID-19 pandemic operationalised as hospitalization of a close friend predicts GCBI, but again only in the case of representatives of Gens Y and Z, especially among women. The findings show how important the creation of appropriate intervention strategies is within the consumer policy directed to representatives of the younger generations who may develop pathological buying as a response to negative experiences such as COVID-19 pandemic. The findings can inform of the goals behind therapeutic support for compulsive buyers, and implications for social work. People affected by excessive compensative or compulsive buying need to be given opportunities to build up their strengths and growth of their psychological resources towards healthy self-esteem, which seems to be the best protection against excessive compensative and compulsive buying.

Links between types of value orientations and consumer behaviours. An empirical study.

The present study concerns the phenomenon of the co-dependence of value orientations and consumer behaviours. Although the idea of the overall connections between both areas is not new, the article contributes to the knowledge about relations between very specific consumer behaviours and social value orientations among people married or in an informal partnership. Using the obtained data, we examine to what extent the prosocial, reciprocal, and egoistic value orientations coexist with compensative, compulsive, and demonstrative buying. The analysis confirms the hypotheses that representatives of the reciprocal and egoistic orientations show susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying to a greater extent than persons preferring other value orientations. In addition, the data show co-dependence of the reciprocal value orientation and demonstrative buying, while the prosocial value orientation seems to protect against compulsive buying. According to the regression analysis, this effect disappears if prosocially oriented persons suffer from low self-esteem at the same time being characterised by strong materialism. All hypothesised relations between value orientations and consumer behaviours have been analysed in multidimensional models considering materialism, self-esteem, age, and gender as the main factors of compensative and compulsive buying. The findings come from the 2017 survey based on a statistically representative sample of 1,121 adult Poles who were then married or in an informal partnership. The German Compulsive Buying Indicator and Lange's Scale of Demonstrative Buying were introduced to measure consumer behaviours.

Compulsive and compensative buying among online shoppers: An empirical study.

The present study examines the phenomenon of compensative and compulsive buying among online shoppers. Firstly, the obtained empirical data make it possible to estimate the prevalence of compensative and compulsive buying among the general population of Poles aged 15 years old and over, with the sample split into users and non-users of the e-commerce market offer. Secondly, the conducted analysis shows to what extent the prevalence of compulsive and compensative buying is differentiated by the frequency of online shopping, by the extent of the expenditures on online shopping compared with offline shopping, by attitudes towards online shopping, and by sociodemographic conditions (gender, age, monthly net income of household). The findings come from a survey conducted in 2019 based on a nationwide statistically representative sample of 1,000 Poles aged 15 years old and over. Drawing on this survey based on the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI), the prevalence of compulsive buying is observed at about 3% and compensative buying at about 12%. Dividing the general population into online and offline shoppers, one can see serious differences between both target groups; the share of compulsive and compensative buyers in the segment of online shoppers amounts to 3.6% and 16.9%, while among non-online shoppers- 3.3% and 10.1%. The strongest susceptibility to compulsive buying is characteristic of female online shoppers having very positive attitudes towards online shopping and doing online shopping very frequently.

Traumatic detachment of the inferior angle of the scapula in a 5-year-old boy--a sonographic diagnosis.

A complete slip of the cartilage of the inferior angle of the scapula was diagnosed in a 5-year-old boy who fell inside a wooden construction at a kindergarten playground. Radiographs of the scapula were normal, and ultrasound demonstrated complete cartilage detachment, which was displaced deep and laterally. Computed tomography (CT) additionally demonstrated a thin rim of bone displaced along with the detached cartilage. Radiologic findings were confirmed during surgery. We report what we believe to be the first published case of traumatic detachment of the cartilaginous lower angle of the scapula in a child demonstrated by ultrasound.