Self-control And Online Shopping Addiction In University Students

With the rapid development and prevalence of Internet,Internet has imperceptibly permeated into people to live aspect.However,excessive use of network may easily lead to Internet addiction.Among many network applications,online shopping has become a kind of popular ways to go shipping with rapid rise in the age of the Internet.And unreasonable network shopping is likely to have problematic shopping behavior,which can lead to addiction.And as with Internet addiction,online shopping addiction can also bring many negative influences to the society and individuals.Many previous researches about online shopping addiction mainly focused on its antecedents,that is,exploring which factor will affect network shopping addiction.However,it is lack of analysis about how these factors affect online shopping addiction.Based on these considerations,this study used questionnaire survey to explore the relationship between self-control,online shopping addiction,network shopping habits and gender.Study 1,on the basis of the Self-Report Habit Index(SRHI),we revised the Chinese version of online shopping habits questionnaire.Results about preliminary survey on 325 subjects indicate that there were two factors after exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.And the cumulative variance explained at a rate of 78.17%.According to the preliminary survey results,we deleted and modified some items,and formed the formal questionnaire.We then took another 198 participants and examined the reliability and validity of the formal questionnaire.The results showed that the online shopping habits contains two dimensions:online shopping frequency and online shopping automaticity,which includes 7 items.The questionnaire has good reliability and validity,which was in line with the psychometric quality.Study 2,we investigated the undergraduates' online shopping habits,and compared their differences in demographic variables such as gender,grades.Results indicated that the strength of college students' network shopping habits is reasonable,and was in medium level on the whole.There were significant differences between female and male students,students who tend to online shopping and students who tend to social shopping,the singleton and non-singleton.Results showed that students who were female,online shopping tendency,and singleton scored significantly higher than those who were male,realistic shopping tendency,and non-singleton.While grade,major,ground source and family economic status had no significant effects on online shopping habits.Study 3,we used structural equation model to examine the mediating effect of habits on the relationship between self-control and online shopping addiction,and moderating effect of gender.Results of intermediary variable model fitting showed that the relationship between self-control and online shopping addiction is partially mediated by online shopping habits(x 2/df = 4.282,RMSEA = 0.084,GFI = 0.930,AGFI = 0.887,NFI = 0,931,CFI = 0.946).Multi-group analysis showed that there were different path coefficients on different gender(chi square = 200.028,df = 6,p<0.001),the influence of self-control and network shopping habits on online shopping addiction among female students has statistical significance(p<0.001).Conclusion:(1)The revised habit questionnaire of college students' online shopping has good reliability and validity.And the questionnaire contains two dimensions:online shopping frequency and online shopping automaticity,which includes 7 items.(2)College students' online shopping habit is in medium level on the whole.The total score of female college students' online shopping habits and each dimension score are significantly higher than those of male college students.Score of the only-child college students in online shopping frequency dimension is significantly higher than that in students with siblings.The total score and each dimension score of students who tend to online shopping are significantly higher than those of students who tend to social shopping.(3)Self-control has a significant negative prediction function on online shipping habits.Online shopping habits have a significant positive prediction function on online shopping addiction.(4)The relationship between self-control and online shopping addiction is partially mediated by online shopping habits.(5)The relationship between self-control and online shopping addiction is significantly moderated by gender.