Buying Belonging: Emotional Dysregulation, Identity Substitution, and Debt-Risk Behaviour in Trend-Based Overconsumption Among Young Adults

Khushi Gupta; Akancha Pandey

Buying Belonging: Emotional Dysregulation, Identity Substitution, and Debt-Risk Behaviour in Trend-Based Overconsumption Among Young Adults

Author(s)	Ms. Khushi Gupta, Dr. Akancha Pandey
Country	India
Abstract	Rising levels of consumer debt and impulsive spending among young adults remain a significant socio-economic concern, yet psychological mechanisms underlying such behaviours are often underexplored. The present quantitative, cross-sectional study examined the roles of self-concept clarity and emotional dysregulation in understanding compulsive buying and financial management behaviour among 150 young adults (18– 30 years) using standardized self-report measures (Self-Concept Clarity Scale, DERS-18, Compulsive Buying Scale, Financial Management Behavior Scale). Findings indicate that Identity Stability was strongly associated with better Emotional Regulation, as Self-concept Clarity was significantly negatively correlated with Emotional Dysregulation (r = −.62, p < .001) and significantly predicted it (β = −.59, p < .001). However, Self-concept Clarity was not significantly related to Compulsive Buying (r = −.08, p > .05). Emotional dysregulation showed a significant association with Compulsive Buying (r = −.28, p < .01). Additionally, Compulsive Buying was positively correlated with Financial Management Behaviour (r = .46, p < .001), reflecting strong correlations between impulsive spending tendencies and financial control efforts. This implies that, in line with what has been seen with emotional dysregulation and its effects on self-concept clarity, the more the dysregulation experienced, the lower the self-clarity across age groups; emotional dysregulation had a significant correlation with both compulsive buying and financial management behaviour. However, low self-concept clarity did not mean that the individual would partake in compulsive buying, suggesting that compulsive buying may be affected by other factors that go beyond self-concept clarity.
Keywords	Emotional dysregulation, Identity substitution, Compulsive buying, Trend- based overconsumption, Debt-risk behaviour, Emerging adulthood.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-04-14

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Buying Belonging: Emotional Dysregulation, Identity Substitution, and Debt-Risk Behaviour in Trend-Based Overconsumption Among Young Adults

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