Clinical Screener (CS): Instrument refinement and comparison of compulsive buying prevalence among Polish young consumers of Eastern Europe to Western culture

This study aims to refine the Clinical Screener instrument according to Eastern European, specifically Polish, socio-cultural settings of measurement, as well to assess and compare the prevalence rate of compulsive buying among young consumers with results of studies derived from US, Germany, Belgium, and Spain - as representatives of the Western consumer cultures. In diagnosis, we also focus on the market and economic-psychological influences and the increasing prevalence of compulsive buying internationally, which bear specific implications on the life of individual consumers, societies, and respective economies. Further, by applying the refined version of Clinical Screener, we compare the compulsive - with non-compulsive buyers. Overall, this study broadens compulsive buying theory toward the new research context - the Eastern European consumer culture, as well as provides practical implications for public policy, business organizations, and marketers. Results reveal that the specificity of socio-economic and cultural background determines not only methodological conditions of measuring this phenomenon in particular countries but also leads to different rates of compulsive buying behaviors among different consumer societies.