This study focused on four types of addictive behaviours: gambling, gaming, social media use, and shopping. The purpose of the study was to identify profiles of people who have high, moderate, and low engagement in these four types of addictive behaviours. The study also examined differences across profiles in terms of materialism, financially focused self-concept, and eudaimonism–hedonism orientation. A total of 380 Italian adults completed questionnaires.
The researchers identified three profiles: (1) high engagement in all four addictive behaviours, including gambling and internet gaming; (2) low engagement in all four addictive behaviours; and (3) high engagement in social media use and shopping only. Profiles 1 and 3 showed higher levels of materialism, hedonism, and financially focused self-concept than Profile 2, but lower levels of eudaimonism. Profile 1 showed higher financially focused self-concept than Profile 3.
