Mental health: Would excessive buying be a crisis coping strategy?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on mental health care and led to a deepening of the study of people's consumption habits. Individuals to dampen negative emotions experienced in crisis and to try to feel in control of their lives engaged in excessive buying. When we analyzed the predictive power of anxiety, depression, and stress over excessive buying as a coping strategy in a sample of Brazilian participants that a questionnaire throughout May 2020, we concluded depression and stress were statistically significant predictors of excessive buying as a coping strategy. Excessive buying functions as a coping strategy at an endangered time, as a way for individuals to protect themselves, decrease fear, and relieve negative feelings. It is imperative to focus on mental health literacy so that individuals appropriately identify signs of mental distress and seek professional help, and to educate society to conscientious consumption habits.

Keywords: anxiety; consumer behavior; coping; covid-19; depression; excessive buying; mental health; stress.