Abstract

MADEIRA PONTES, Matheus Dantas; PENALOZA, Verónica  and  DUARTE PONTES, Thayanne Lima. IMPACT OF FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: GENDER DIFFERENCES. Innovar [online]. 2020, vol.30, n.75, pp.31-42. ISSN 0121-5051.  https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v30n75.83237.

Several studies have tried to demonstrate the existence of differences in consumption behaviors between men and women. The way in which each gender usually reacts to family financial difficulties seems to explain part of these differences. In order to obtain specific results on this issue, we applied the Attitudes towards Consumption scale to 919 adult individuals in the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. After an exploratory factor analysis, the presence of three constructs was observed: rationality, impulsivity and compulsivity. Analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) indicated that women show a more rational and compulsive behavior towards purchases than men. Through Spearman's correlation it was also found that family financial difficulties encourage compulsive consumption among women. In this way, financial difficulties seem to indirectly impact compulsive consumption in female consumers through the evocation of negative feelings such as anguish, anxiety and stress. This result indicates the possible existence of a perpetuation of the condition of vulnerability of women, as financial difficulties would promote compulsive consumption that, therefore, could become a new source of family financial difficulties.

Keywords : Attitudes towards consumption; compulsive consumption; family financial difficulties; gender differences.

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