Negative mood regulation expectancies moderate the effect of childhood maltreatment on compulsive buying

Abstract

Objective Two studies investigated childhood maltreatment, alexithymia—the inability to identify one's mood—and negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE)—confidence that one can alleviate one's negative moods—as predictors of compulsive buying (CB). Method Participants were recruited from internet CB forums and undergraduate psychology classes. Online, they completed questionnaires and a behavioral task that assessed impulsive spending. Results In Study 1 (N = 646), analyses indicated that NMRE, alexithymia, and childhood maltreatment were significant independent predictors of CB. For Study 2, a subset of participants from the Study 1 pool (N = 295) who met the criterion for clinical levels of CB were selected, based on their self‐report. Analyses revealed that NMRE buffered the effect of maltreatment: among participants with high NMRE—higher levels of maltreatment were associated with minimal increases in CB and impulsive spending behavior. Conclusion Being confident that one can control one's unpleasant moods was a protective factor from the maladaptive consequences of childhood maltreatment. Increasing NMRE early in psychotherapy for CB may result in clients' using more adaptive coping strategies.

Does Childhood Trauma Predict Impulsive Spending in Later Life? An Analysis of the Mediating Roles of Impulsivity and Emotion Regulation

“…While their findings are not specific to impulse spending specifically, they showed that ACEs are linked to emotion dysregulation which may lead to difficulties in later life across a range of domains. The current findings also align with Shin et al ( 2018 ) who showed that ACEs are related to impulsivity in later life, as well as Kaur and Mearns ( 2021 ) who found that negative mood regulation expectancy moderated the link between childhood adversity and impulsive spending. These findings are also consistent with research showing that mood prior to spending increases the likelihood of impulsive spending (Ozer & Gultekin, 2015 ).…”

“…Childhood trauma showed a weak but significant positive correlation with impulsive spending, indicating that greater exposure to childhood trauma increases the likelihood that an individual will impulsively spend in later life, supporting Hypothesis A. This aligns with previous findings showing that childhood maltreatment is linked to greater compulsive spending (Kaur & Means, 2021 ).…”

“…There is little research linking childhood adversity and impulsive spending in adulthood. One study found that increased negative mood regulation expectancies, alexithymia, and childhood maltreatment were all independent predictors of compulsive buying (Kaur & Mearns, 2021 ). This study also showed that negative mood regulation expectancies moderated the effect of maltreatment on impulse spending (Kaur & Mearns, 2021 ).…”

Latent classes of eating disorders and addictions by sex: Implication of alexithymia and stressful life events in youths

“…Studies have supported the hypothesis that alexithymia may constitute a stable personality trait, strongly influenced and caused by many factors, including stressful life and early traumatic experiences, which may, in turn, lead to increased vulnerability both to EDs and addictive disorders (Lane et al, 2000;Lyvers et al, 2019;Shank et al, 2019;Lenzo et al, 2020). According to Kaur (2019), individuals who experienced more stressful childhood experiences and reported less ability to identify their moods (i.e., alexithymia) were more likely to use an addictive behaviour as a maladaptive coping mechanism. In addition, posttraumatic disorders are significantly more recurrent in young people in treatment for addiction and EDs than those without them, and are associated with a costlier treatment and worse prognosis (Wang et al, 2020;Momeñe et al, 2022a).…”

Çevrimiçi Alışveriş Bağımlılığı: Sistematik Bir Derleme

“…Dissosiyasyonun ve aleksitimi belirtilerinin çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma bir risk faktörü olduğu önceki çalışmalarda da gösterilmiştir (35,50,51). Bulguların birbiriyle paralelliği çevrimiçi kompulsif satın almanın, sıkıntı ve diğer olumsuz duygudurumlardan geçici olarak uzaklaşmak için bir araç olarak kavramsallaştırılmasını destekler niteliktedir (52).…”