title: How the economic situation moderates the influence of available money on compulsive buying of students - A comparative study between Turkey and Greece.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Few studies about compulsive buying consider the economic framing situation. This study is concerned with the impact of different economic environments - the crisis in Greece vs. the boom in Turkey - on compulsive buying tendencies of students, while taking the role of gender and available money into account.
  
  
  METHODS
  Compulsive buying was measured by a Greek and Turkish translation of the German Compulsive Buying Scale (Raab, Neuner, Reisch & Scherhorn, 2005) in Greece and Turkey, which enabled an identification of compulsive and compensatory buyers. The questionnaires were administered to 119 Turkish and 123 Greek students (n = 242) enrolled in several universities in Athens and Istanbul. The data collection was conducted in a controlled and standardized way, namely in group-sessions lasting about 5 minutes, which were conducted and supervised by co-workers of the involved universities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results have shown that the percentage of compensatory buyers, but not compulsive buyers, within the Greek students sample was significantly smaller than within the Turkish student sample. Further as assumed the moderation of the economic situation could be confirmed: More available money only has a facilitating effect on compulsive buying tendencies under a positive economic environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anticipations about the financial situation and the general economic climate are more relevant for compulsive buying tendencies than one's actual available money. Compensatory, but not compulsive buying was significantly smaller under crisis.
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences, Ludwigshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences, Ludwigshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Papastamatelou
authors.affiliation: Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Elif
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yolbulan Okan
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences, Ludwigshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sinem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aytas
keywords: German Compulsive Buying Scale (GCBS); available money of students; behavioral addiction; compensatory buying; compulsive buying; economic boom in Turkey; economic crisis in Greece