Binge Eating Behaviors, Neuroticism, and Compulsive Clothing Buying: Are They Related?

The purpose of this research is to determine if bulimic behaviors and high levels of neuroticism lead to compulsive clothing buying. Female students from a large midwestern university in the United States were administered a Compulsive Clothing Buying scale, the binging/control subscale of the BULIT-R, and the NEO-FFI personality questionnaire. Using Amos 6.0, a path analysis indicated that neuroticism significantly predicted binging behaviors, and binging tendencies significantly predicted compulsive clothing buying. Neuroticism was not found to be related to compulsive clothing buying directly. Findings may suggest that appearance and appearance-related products are of utmost importance to female consumers who engage in compulsive consumption behaviors (i.e., binging or compulsive buying).