Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions

Ivanna Parfanovich

1 a

, Iryna Trubavina

2,3 b

and Uliana Huzik

Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, 2 Maksyma Kryvonosa Str., Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, 7 Vokzalna Str., Lubny, 37500, Ukraine

Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine

Dzhurynsko-Slobidkiv branch of the Dzhurynskyi reference institution of general secondary education of the I-III degrees

of the Bilobozhnytsk village council of the Ternopil region, 11 Shkilna Str., Dzhurynska Slobidka, 48571, Ukraine

Keywords:

Shopaholism, People Likely to Be Shopaholics, Preventive and Corrective Work, the Program of Actions of

Prevention.

Abstract:

The article deals with the phenomenon of shopaholism which is characterized as a harmful habit, unhealthy

condition and/or disease because of a depressive state, psychoemotional problems, killing time or varying

leisure and lifestyle. The prevention of shopaholism is possible on condition of coordinative actions of those

taking part in prevention that is why, the focus should be on the peculiarities of program implementation and on

providing diagnosis and prevention. The ways of the implementation of the research tasks are varied including

determination of life values and principles of people likely to be shopaholics; devising the program of working

with women; ways of program implementation in different institutions and organizations responsible for de-

viant behavior prevention; scientiﬁc and methodological grounds for the technique of shopaholism prevention

and correction; expertized evaluation and analysis of the results of the preventive and therapeutical measures;

ﬁnding out appropriate ways of prevention and treating shopaholism. The development and implementation

of the project of prevention and treating shopaholism helps: to implement diagnostic and methodological re-

sults concerning revealing target groups and signs of shopaholism; to deﬁne the efﬁciency of the technique of

dealing with the mentioned group; to achieve positive results what is proved by the research.

1 INTRODUCTION

Traditionally, the prevention of deviant behavior was

the subject of activities of social services and edu-

cational institutions. But they engaged in traditional

negative habits and manifestations. Shopaholism was

not considered an actual problem. Today, this type

of deviant behavior requires signiﬁcant efforts on the

part of society and, ﬁrst of all, on the part of educa-

tional institutions.

Deviant behaviour is asocial, amoral (minor vio-

lations of the social life standards), auto-aggressive

which is divided into addictive and suicidal, un-

lawful (signiﬁcant violations of the norms of social

life). Shopaholism according to such division refers

to auto-aggressive addictive behaviouur. This kind of

deviation should be considered both as a social phe-

nomenon due to its signiﬁcant prevalence, and as a

deviant behaviour of an individual through the defor-

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5300-7092

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1057-430X

mation of values, standards of behaviour. Preventing

and treating this kind of deviant behaviour of indi-

viduals is important not only for the correction and

rehabilitation of their social development and psycho-

emotional health, but also for the well-being of their

relatives and loved ones, and hence for the microso-

cial environment and society in general.

In our deﬁnition, “prevention” (warning, over-

coming) of deviant behavior is a normative-legal,

social-organizational, psychological-pedagogical

process of organizing and implementing a set of

measures that ensure the social-psychological devel-

opment of an individual. Accordingly, “prevention”,

“warning” are measures aimed at preventing the

formation of negative manifestations and deviations

in the development of a person, and “overcoming” is

the elimination of deviations in the development and

vital activities of a person.

Parfanovich, I., Trubavina, I. and Huzik, U.

Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions.

DOI: 10.5220/0012646900003737

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning (ICHTML 2023), pages 98-106

ISBN: 978-989-758-579-1; ISSN: 2976-0836

2 AIM

The aim of the article is to determine the speciﬁcs of

the prevention of shopaholism as a type of deviant be-

havior, its causes and consequences for the individual

and society. This, in particular, involves the need to:

determine the essence of the phenomenon; to reveal

the speciﬁcs of diagnosing shopaholism among the

population; to establish effective ways of preventing

and overcoming this type of deviation in institutions

of higher education with student youth and in the in-

dividual development and behavior of a person.

3 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The problem of behavioural deviations became the

subject of research of the scientiﬁc and research lab-

oratory for the diagnosis and prevention of deviant

behaviour, which operates on the basis of Ternopil

Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University.

Effective diagnostics and preventive maintenance of

shopaholism are one of the directions the laboratory

is working on.

Auto-aggression is the manifestation of destruc-

tive activity directed by a person straight on them-

selves. The types of auto-aggression are the fol-

lowing: tobacco, alcohol, drug, computer, game ad-

diction, bulimia and anorexia, suicidal and parasui-

cidal behaviour (UkrLoves.com, 2017). In cases of

non-chemical addictions, the attention is permanently

ﬁxed on certain subjects (stamps, books, weapons) or

activities (sex, work, food consumption, taking care

about a man-alcoholic, communicating with a com-

puter). These subjects or activities gradually displace

normal contacts with people, love, care for their loved

ones, rest, need in friendly support (Popov and Brug,

2005).

The phenomenon of oniomania was ﬁrst noted by

the famous German psychiatrist Kraepelin (1915), a

“discoverer” of schizophrenia and manic depression.

He noticed that it was very similar to other types of

addictions (Nechaenko, 2011).

The stages of the formation of shopaholism are:

the ﬁrst – a sudden, meaningless purchase; the sec-

ond – experimentation; the third – a desire to buy; the

fourth – purchases are made on any occasion, the crit-

icality of purchase is lost; the ﬁfth – constant sense of

guilt (Shopogolizm, 2015).

Today, online shopping or e-shopping is where

anyone can buy goods or services using a provided ap-

plication or web browser on the Internet (Huei et al.,

2023).

Theoretical approaches of scientists to this prob-

lem are classiﬁed by the determinants of onioma-

nia: biological (Nechaenko, 2011); social (Jhang,

2018; Shopogolizm, 2015); pedagogical (Nechaenko,

2011); psychological (Romanchukevich, 2013).

Many scholars consider a complex of reasons affect-

ing the emergence of shopaholism. The present study

was descriptive qualitative in design, consisting of a

few case studies based on semi structured interview

of individuals high on shopaholism, consisting infor-

mation about participants’. Before and after affect of

shopping, motivation, causes and other related signif-

icant information regarding their shopping behavior

was also explored (Sharma et al., 2020; Hunter, 2018;

Ghosh, 2013; Gust, 2015; Yuh and Choi, 2017).

Thus, oniomania as a social phenomenon is still

most common among women. This is evidenced by

the following argument: “A woman is a biological

person who biologically has a more developed hemi-

sphere of the brain, which is responsible for emo-

tions and irrational perception of the world, and it is

this that plays a predominant role in the emergence

of tension in the departments that control emotions”

(Nechaenko, 2011; Tyagi and Shyam, 2019). Scien-

tists are also convinced that in most cases women suf-

fer from oniomania and because of the prevalence of

such emotions as lack of love, recognition, the pres-

ence of a feeling of emotional emptiness, depression.

The consequences of shopaholism are severe:

feelings of guilt; nervous tension or breakdowns; ex-

haustion; apathy; irritability; ﬁnancial losses.

It is proposed to carry out diagnostics of the pres-

ence of oniomania according to the criteria: frequent

purchasing concerns or sudden impulses to buy some-

thing; regular purchases of unnecessary things usu-

ally not correspondent to available funds or a sig-

niﬁcant increase in shopping time compared to the

one originally scheduled; purchasing troubles, sudden

purchases or the associated behavioural features are

accompanied by expressive distress, inadequate loss

of time, become a serious obstacle both in everyday

life and professional ﬁeld, or cause ﬁnancial prob-

lems (e.g., debt or bankruptcy); excessive purchasing

or going shopping is not necessarily manifested in pe-

riods of hypomania or mania (Noykina, 2012).

Domestic and foreign scholars offer mechanisms

for displacement and replacement of shopaholism

as a form of behavioural deviations by establish-

ing positive social relations in interpersonal and in-

tersexual aspects, socially positive ways of self-

actualization (Jhang, 2018; Kireicheva and Kireichev,

2006; Nechaenko, 2013; Liu, 2016; Noykina, 2012;

Yuh and Choi, 2017).

Various approaches of the research signiﬁcance of

Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions

shopaholism in the life of society and individuals are

investigated:

• Contemporary culture encourages shopping to

abate negative emotions or alter one’s disposition

(Hunter, 2018);

• The papers investigate shopaholism as a linguistic

term (Callies, 2016);

• The research is dedicated to analysis of stars’

shopaholism (Gust, 2015);

• The role of Fashion and Commodity Fetishism in

the formation of shopogolism is deﬁned (Ghosh,

2013).

Thus, having analyzed the views of the re-

searchers of shopaholism, such conclusions are

drawn: many scientists deﬁne oniomania as a disease

or a pathological condition of a person; presence of

oniomania manifestations testiﬁes to an uncomfort-

able condition of a person, deterioration of social de-

velopment, psychological well-being; predominantly,

the phenomenon of shopaholism is characteristic of

female persons through the psycho-emotional mech-

anism of the emergence and formation of addiction;

oniomania has biomedical, psychological, pedagogi-

cal and social determinants; prevalence of the deﬁned

determinants of oniomania emergence and develop-

ment indicates a stable tendency towards deformation

in the development and behaviour of a person, in par-

ticular, social disorganization.

Thus, shopaholism can be deﬁned as a bad habit;

unhealthy condition and/or disease; the consequence

of a depressed state, psycho-emotional problems; di-

versiﬁcation of time, leisure, life.

The problem of behavioural deviations became

the subject of research of the scientiﬁc and research

laboratory for the diagnosis and prevention of deviant

behaviour, which operates on the basis of Ternopil

Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University

(90 female students), Kharkiv National Pedagogical

University named after H. Skovoroda (72 female stu-

dents).

The scientiﬁc and methodological substantiation

and the results of the practical solution of the tasks

set are presented below. Work on the speciﬁed issue

has been carried out by the scientiﬁc and research lab-

oratory since 2013. As diagnostic tools of the study

served: a) questionnaires; b) polls; c) specialized di-

agnostic techniques.

In the course of study a comparison of diagnostic

data, obtained with the help of A. N. Orel’s method

and our own one, has been conducted. The method

developed by Orel (2004) is a set of specialized diag-

nostic scales aimed at measuring the readiness (pre-

disposition) for the implementation of separate forms

of behaviour with deviations. According to these

scales, 90 females aged 18-25 were diagnostically ex-

amined, and the results are presented in table 1.

The questionnaire according to A. N. Orel’s meth-

ods includes both male and female versions. The fe-

male version contains 107 statements that should be

analyzed by the person being tested. From a number

of statements concerning life, character, habits, one

needs to choose what corresponds to the person in-

terviewed and mark it in the response form with the

number of a statement. Each answer according to the

key is assigned 1 point. Further, the total score is cal-

culated according to each scale that is presented in

table 1, which is compared with the test standards. If

the deviation of the individual results from the stan-

dards is observed, a psychological feature is deﬁned

as expressed. In table 1 the data on the mass frac-

tion of those women from the total number of respon-

dents who have high, average and low indicators are

given and these data as a percentage of the total num-

ber of persons involved in the diagnosis according to

A. N. Orel’s methods are presented.

Identifying people belonging to a risk group is

the ﬁrst step in a diagnostic examination. The sec-

ond is the detection of a person’s predisposition to

shopaholism. Conducting a comprehensive compar-

ative survey eliminates the possibility of an error, ig-

noring some indicators. We used a developed ques-

tionnaire. The poll is aimed at analyzing the problem

comprehensively: What, in your opinion, is “shopa-

holism”? Do you consider yourself a shopaholic?

How do you feel about this category of people? Do

you think that shopaholism is a problem? Have you

ever thought that you are spending too much money

on buying things you do not need? What features do

you pay attention to during the purchase: quality or

quantity? Do you agree with the idea “Clothes are

never enough”? Why? Is it needful to plan purchases?

Do you have close friends, who are prone to shopa-

holism? Do you know how to cope with this prob-

lem? In addition, we offer a set of diagnostic methods

that can be used in the monitoring process and iden-

tifying shopaholism as a form of deviant behaviour

(Parfanovych, 2009).

Having conducted the research on the basis

of Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogi-

cal University, State Higher Educational Institution

“Ternopil College for Food Technologies and Trade”,

covering 90 girls and young women aged 18 to 25,

found that 81 girls of the respondents were not char-

acterized by a tendency to such addiction as shopa-

holism. However, among those identiﬁed with the

predisposition (9 girls), too, not all of them have the

same degree of behaviour: 2 girls – have clearly

ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning

100

Table 1: The results of the diagnostic examination of females in order to reveal signs of predisposition to deviant behaviour

(based on A. N. Orel’s methods).

Scales

Indexes

High Medium Low

1. The scale of the targeting on social

desirability (job scale)

– 5% 95% (the tested are not prone to conceal their own

norms and values, adjust their answers in the direction

of social desirability)

2. The scale of predisposition to over-

come norms and rules

6% 12% 82% (conformal settings of the tested, the tendency to

follow the stereotypes and norms of behaviour)

3. The scale of predisposition to addic-

tive behaviour

– 11% 89% (indeterminacy of the above-mentioned tenden-

cies, good social control of behavioural reactions)

4. The scale of predisposition to

self-damaging and self-destructive

behaviour

– 16% 84% (lack of readiness to implement self-destructive

behaviour, lack of inclination to implement complexes

of guilt in behaviour)

5. The scale of predisposition to aggres-

sion and violence

– 22% 78% (high level of social control of behavioural reac-

tions)

6. The scale of volitional control of

emotional reactions

2% 9% 89% (strict self-control of any behavioural emotional

reactions, sensory impulses)

7. The scale of predisposition to delin-

quent behaviour

– 3% 97% (high level of social control)

Scales average mean 1.1% 12.5% 86.4%

expressed signs; 4 girls – constitute a risk group;

3 girls – are characterized by periodic or partial man-

ifestations of this addiction.

As in the analysis based on the methodology of

A. N. Orel, a shift in the personal spheres of those

individuals who are prone to shopaholism is also

observed: cognitive (low self-esteem, lack of self-

conﬁdence, recognition at work or desired career

growth, dissatisfaction with their appearance); psy-

choemotional (absence or lack of attention of your

loved ones, feeling of loneliness, need for recogni-

tion and love, depression, life routine, severe disap-

pointments in people, psycho-emotional injuries such

as violence, death of a loved one, illness, psycholog-

ical problems from childhood, sexual dissatisfaction,

lack of parental love and attention); volitional (low-

ered level of self-regulation, illusion of power, lim-

ited spending of money, due to its lack, insigniﬁcant

amount of pocket money, or too strict prohibitions).

Almost all females (except for three) involved in

the diagnosis have shown readiness to correct their

behaviour, the desire to improve their social develop-

ment and psycho-emotional feeling. The developed

project of the program for prevention and treating

shopaholism was aimed at the problems mentioned

above. The main target audience includes people aged

18-27 years, who have different degrees of predispo-

sition to shopaholism.

The evaluation of the work result is based on the

established criteria of effectiveness. The deﬁned cri-

teria are indicators of work based on the dynamics of

quantitative and qualitative indicators obtained at dif-

ferent stages of work. The following points served for

the assessment of the effectiveness of diagnostic and

preventive work: a) conclusions of all participants of

the project; b) well-being and personal orientation of

persons prone to shopaholism. The work within the

framework of the program was characterized by mass,

group and individual measures.

Mass measures and features of their implemen-

tation aimed at prevention and treating shopaholism

among female students of higher education institu-

tions are presented in table 2. It is advisable to use

handouts (booklets) with the indicated list of a) regu-

lations with their short content characteristics; b) so-

cial structures of the state and international levels,

whose activities are aimed at protecting the rights of

women; c) methodical recommendations with com-

ments and explanations concerning the mechanism of

the appeals of women to social institutions and orga-

nizations. And also including periodic coverage of the

program implementation process in mass media.

Conducting group preventive work with females,

who are prone to shopaholism, is a signiﬁcant part of

corrective and rehabilitation work.

The requirements for group work are as follows:

1. Sincerity in communication. 2. Mandatory partic-

ipation in the group work during the whole time. 3.

The right of each member of the group to say “stop”

4. Each participant speaks for himself, on his own be-

half and does not speak for the other. 5. Do not criti-

cize and acknowledge the right of everyone to express

Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions

101

Table 2: Mass prevention measures to prevent and over-

come shopaholism among women (based on the results of

the implementation of the developed project).

Peculiarities of measures implementation

1. Press conference. It is conducted with an aim to

update the problem and highlight the results of the

program implementation. The subject of the press

conference is determined in the process of work and

conditioned by the nature of urgent problems. The

participants of the program and those social struc-

tures, the participation of which requires an in-depth

approach to solving current and/or operational issues

are involved before the press conference.

2. Round table. It is used as a form of preven-

tive and corrective-rehabilitation work for 1) discus-

sion of urgent issues with the involvement of sub-

jects of prevention (program participants, employees

of state executive bodies and local municipal bodies,

and 2) women who are ready for and capable of self-

disclosure and / or speech on particular issues sub-

jected to coordinated activities of a psychologist, so-

cial workers.

3. Psycho-correction lesson. Conducted by a psy-

chologist with target groups according to the deﬁned

order and content of work. The involvement of social

educators, social workers is possible.

4. Training. The form of inﬂuence for developing

ideas, beliefs, and standards of behaviour. It is ad-

visable to conduct a narrow thematic training when

women acquire some skills.

5. Lecture. Clariﬁcation and coverage of questions re-

lated to shopaholism. It is advisable to have a compre-

hensive look at the question with the involvement of

specialists of different ﬁelds: doctors, lawyers, psy-

chologists, social workers, civil servants.

6. Video lecture. Demonstration of video materials

with corresponding comments in the form of a lecture

by leading specialists related to the topic.

7. Conversation. Individual and group forms of work

with women involved in the implementation of the

program. The content, time, and topics of the con-

versation are determined by the necessity to fulﬁll the

tasks in the framework of the project.

8. Dispute. The appropriate form of development

of sustainable knowledge, ideas, beliefs, skills of

women’s behaviour; concerns the mechanisms of so-

cial and psychological protection, self-regulatory be-

haviour and basic standards of treatment in problem

situations.

their views, respect the opinion of another. 7. Do not

take all that is happening in the classroom beyond the

group. 8. Carefully listen to the thoughts of others,

do not interrupt. 9. Introduce a sign-regulator, for

example, a raised hand, when all attention is drawn

to the speaker. 10. Introduce a time limit that will

restrict and set the scope of each lesson. 11. Ask par-

ticipants to propose additional rules if they consider

it necessary (Tokova, 2014).

Among all the forms and methods of group work,

we emphasize the feasibility of conducting a train-

ing lesson to attract people with varying degrees of

deviations (Parfanovych et al., 2018). The devel-

oped training lesson passed an expert evaluation and

is recommended for implementation by the regional

expert commission on the expertise of psychological

and sociological tools (№ 3 of December 21, 2017)

of Ternopil Regional Public Institute of Postgraduate

Pedagogical Education.

Group forms and methods for preventing and

treating shopaholism among females are developed

on the basis of the results of the implementation of the

developed training lesson (Parfanovych et al., 2018):

1. Exercise “Principles of work in a group” (Tokova,

2014). 2. Exercise “Draw Your Name” (Kireicheva

and Kireichev, 2006). 3. Mini-lecture “Autoaggres-

sion, Addiction, Shopaholism”. 4. Dispute “Un-

ﬁnished sentence”. 5. Examples of shopaholism

(Tokova, 2014). 6. Dispute “Labels with Addic-

tions”. 7. Situation analysis. 8. Exercise “Shop-

ping” (Parfanovych et al., 2018). 9. Conversation.

10. Exercise “Waterfall”. 11. Discussion “My Val-

ues”. 12. Exercise “Write a fairy tale”. 13. Exercise

“Free Advice” (Tokova, 2014). 14. Slide Show “Re-

placement of Shopping”. 15. Reﬂection.

Individual work is of particular importance in

the corrective and rehabilitation process. The criteria

for the effectiveness of individual work with a person

are as follows: 1) interests, needs; 2) state of health;

3) forthcoming plans, future prospects; 4) the nature

of social relations; 5) way of spending free time.

Prevention of shopaholism at an individual level

includes the following techniques for self-correction

behaviour: 1. On the days when you can buy some-

thing needless, take money only for your transport

and lunch. 2. Find constant hobbies and reasonable

entertainment, to include sports exercises or dance

classes, aerobics, which contribute to the develop-

ment of endorphin or a pleasure hormone, into the

routine of a day. 3. Do not go shopping in a state of

hunger or annoyance. 4. Switch over to other prob-

lems. 5. Count money spent (buying needless things,

not necessary items). 6. Plan trips. 7. Communicate

more with nice people. 8. Start learning a foreign

language, take a pet, learn to do something with your

own hands. 9. Think of the needy and get something

for them. 10. Before each trip to the store, make a

list of things you need to buy, and strictly follow this

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102

list. 11. Take to stores only the amount of money that

is enough to pay for what is on the list. 12. Do not

carry a credit card on you. 13. If you saw the thing

you would like to buy, put it aside for a few hours, and

preferably for a day; maybe after a couple of hours it

will seem to you not so much needed and important.

So, mass, group and individual work have their

differences and speciﬁcs in application. The nature of

the technology (prevention or coping) will be deter-

mined by the degree of deformation of the person’s

personal development. Such differentiation is pre-

sented in table 3.

4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Unexpected and unpredictable moments in the re-

search process require discussion.

1. Point 14 ”Slide Show of ”Shopping Substitutes”

(presentation materials for aerobics, yoga, sports,

charity activities, etc.) revealed that there are so

many alternatives to shopping. Women and girls

involved in work named many of their passions

and hobbies. However, they also claimed that

shopaholism is not an adikiya and has a socially

accepted character, it can be a good way to spend

free time. That is, the existing fact of conscious

rejection of the problem – “departure” from it.

Therefore, a lot of work should go into highlight-

ing the consequences of deviation and increasing

motivation to prevent and overcome the problem.

And this, in turn, proves that prevention of shopa-

holism is very important and a priority.

2. It is worth highlighting the risks that may arise in

the process of diagnosis and preventive work:

• low motivation of a person to cooperate;

• inconsistency of the person’s psycho-emotional

state, its dynamism;

• manifestations of conformity, when the person

pays more attention to the opinion of the en-

vironment than to the process of correcting the

deviation;

• unpreparedness of the subject of diagnosis and

prevention and his inability to interpret the re-

sults of research and the process;

3. Interpretation of research results. The identi-

ﬁed risks may negatively affect the effectiveness

of the research.

We have identiﬁed the following as criteria for the

effectiveness of the work with the person: inter-

ests, needs; well-being; immediate plans, future

prospects; the nature of social ties; way of spend-

ing free time. To determine reliable results, we

offer a 5-point scale that will help you choose the

right answer for a speciﬁc person:

(a) interests, needs (positive focus on develop-

ment – 5 points; versatility of interests that

are not ﬁxed in stereotypes of behavior, pos-

sible manifestation of shopaholism in crisis sit-

uations – 4 points; interests do not have inde-

pendent in-depth development, are manifested

under the inﬂuence of other people, as well

as manifestations shopaholism, – 3 points; pe-

riodic making of ill-considered purchases – 2

points; constant manifestations of shopaholism

and lack of deeper interests – 1 point);

(b) feeling of well-being (balanced state, focus on

positive communication and development – 5

points; state is balanced, but there is no posi-

tive setting – 4 points; there are periodic man-

ifestations of psycho-emotional imbalance and

the ability to impulsive acts, ill-considered ac-

tions – 3 points; ascertaining the presence of

signs of negative well-being, increased anxi-

ety, irritability, psycho-emotional excitability –

2 points; depressive state and manifestations of

concomitant types of deviant behavior (smok-

ing, alcohol abuse, etc.) – 1 point);

not included in the plans as an ill-considered

purchase of things – 5 points; there are no plans

and the person is guided by spontaneous de-

cisions – 4 points; the probability of spending

time in the form of shopping – 3 points; subcon-

scious desire for shopping and unconsciousness

of actions and their consequences – 2 points; an

open desire to spend another unnecessary shop-

ping trip – 1 point);

(d) the nature of social relationships (friends and

the environment are free from addiction to buy-

ing unnecessary things – 5 points; uncertainty

of the circle of acquaintances and friends – 4

points; possible spontaneous selection of shop-

ping companions – 3 points; unconscious se-

lection of friends with an addiction – 2 points;

close friendship with persons who have similar

addictive behavior – 1 point);

(e) way of spending free time (interests are diverse,

aimed at development – 5 points; spending free

time does not have clearly deﬁned forms and

landmarks – 4 points; the impossibility of shop-

ping is limited by lack of funds and time – 3

points; shopping takes place if it is not in the

form of buying, then at least contemplation, and

at the same time you can borrow money if nec-

Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions

103

Table 3: Mass, group and individual measures to prevent and overcome shopaholism among women.

Activities

Forms and methods

of implementation

Features carrying out

Nature (warning /

overcoming)

Mass Press conferences, round ta-

bles, psychocorrective classes,

lectures, video lectures, conversa-

tions, debates

There is no speciﬁcation regarding the ob-

ject of inﬂuence. Orientation on the right

choice of the way of spending free time,

teaching positive forms of leisure

Warning

Group Training sessions, exercises, lec-

tures, debates, examples, discus-

sions, analysis of situations, re-

ﬂection, presentations

Individuals are “at risk” or the problem is

closely related to a group of individuals. It

can be both preventive and corrective and

rehabilitative in nature

Warning /

overcoming

Individual Work of a psychologist, applica-

tion of specialized methods, con-

versations, organization of self-

education and self-control

Work is determined by the degree of socio-

pedagogical neglect of a person and mani-

festations of oniomania as a type of deviant

behavior. The person needs social support.

Overcoming

essary – 2 points; shopping – one of the priority

ways of spending leisure time – 1 point).

Thus, the derived average score from the speciﬁed

criteria will be evidence of the manifestation of

oniomania, if the score is lower than 5 and 4. If the

score is within 3, the person is in a risk group and

needs appropriate correction in development; 1–2

points – work with the person should be carried

out according to the type of “overcoming onioma-

nia”.

4. The variability of the approach to the prevention

and overcoming of oniomania as a type of de-

viant behavior, which is dictated by the goal and

the necessary result, as well as stages, forms and

methods of work.

Additional research and analysis require such

questions as: determining of clear functional obli-

gations of institutions, establishments, organizations

involved in the work, its ﬁnancial, technical, ma-

terial, methodological, scientiﬁc, personnel compo-

nents; socio-organizational, scientiﬁc and methodi-

cal, normative and legal provision of preventive mea-

sures and solving of social and organizational issues

of measures realization.

5 RESULTS

We have carried out a parametric measurement (com-

parison of data at the initial and ﬁnal stages of work)

in relation to persons involved in measures of mass,

group and individual character. The results are pre-

sented on ﬁgure 1.

Referring the statistical data, such conclusions can

be drawn: preventive and corrective and rehabilitation

work with persons who have clearly expressed signs

Initial stage Final stage

1.6

0.9

4.4

1.8

2.5

1.7

Percentage

Explicit signs of shopaholism

Risk group

Periodic/frequent shopaholism manifestations

Figure 1: The change of the indicators of manifestation of

shopaholism among women at the initial and ﬁnal stages of

preventive work.

of shopaholism is the most difﬁcult to carry out; actu-

alization of the problem positively inﬂuences people

of the risk group; variables change the least among

people who are characterized by periodic or partial

manifestations.

Analysis of achieving the goal of the article. The

purpose of the article is to establish the speciﬁcs of the

prevention of shopaholism as a type of deviant behav-

ior: the speciﬁcs of diagnosing shopaholism among

student youth, effective ways of preventing this type

of deviance in institutions of higher education. We

believe that the goal of the article has been achieved.

In the course of work, the following were discovered:

a) shopaholism (oniomania) is a deviant behavior, as

it is a deviation in behavior, has a systemic and

negative character;

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104

b) the diagnosis of oniomania in the forces of multi-

vector determinants is complex and must be based

on various methods and forms and with the use

of specialized techniques; a feature of diagnostics

is that the deviation can be determined with the

gradual application of diagnostic tools and with

the involvement of specialists of various proﬁles;

c) in view of the fact that three groups of people

have been identiﬁed with regard to the presence

of oniomania (without deviations, a risk group,

the presence of shopaholism), there should be a

differentiation of the application of measures of a

preventive and preventive nature, as well as mea-

sures aimed at overcoming an already existing

problem (table 3); e) preventive measures at the

general societal and individual levels in the activ-

ities of higher education institutions should also

be excellent, taking into account the sex-gender

approach.

6 CONCLUSIONS

In general, a person with a shopaholism problem

should be taught not to hide from it, and to slowly

and persistently solve it. This is ensured by: the work

in accordance with the deﬁned target groups and an

individually differentiated approach as the basis for

achieving the goals related to improving the socio-

psychological state of those who are prone to shopa-

holism; monitoring of psychological and personality

characteristics of persons prone to shopaholism; qual-

itative analysis of the implementation of preventive

measures at mass, group, individual levels; expert as-

sessment of the achieved results; scientiﬁc and me-

thodical, socio-organizational, methodical, material

and technical support of realization of diagnostic and

preventive and correction measures.

Shopaholism in the article is deﬁned as a social

phenomenon and deviant behavior through the nature

of manifestation, distribution, outcomes and signiﬁ-

cance in social and individual development. As a neg-

ative deviation, which ﬁrst and foremost manifests it-

self in the behavior of an individual, shopaholism due

to its mass manifestation has acquired a social char-

acter. This requires an in-depth study of the effective

ways of preventing and overcoming it. Addressing

this problem has allowed to highlight the main aspects

that should be taken into account in the prevention of

shopaholism.

1. The actuality of the problem and the coverage of

the consequences of the formation of the addic-

tion in mass measures is rather signiﬁcant in the

preventive maintenance of shopaholism. Primary

prevention is known to be the most effective and

addressing the problem itself helps to conﬁrm its

efﬁcacy. Shopaholism or oniomania as a kind of

deviant behavior is not realized by people, so the

appeal to it is already a preventive step. Here, the

rule that only a recognized pathology is deﬁned as

a problem works.

2. As the suppression, and, possibly, the complica-

tions of such risks as information oversaturation,

deterioration of psycho-emotional state of health

due to the lack of empathy, the spread of feelings

of loneliness and alienation, pragmatism, rational-

ism are expected, and especially among women,

the problem will acquire worse forms and compli-

cations. This is the ﬁrst point. And secondly, pre-

ventive and correction and rehabilitation work on

the problems of behavioral addicts should be ap-

proached comprehensively and treated not in iso-

lation, but in relation to these problems in the state

and well-being of a person.

3. There is a change in public values, when mate-

rial values are propagated and moral and spiritual

ones are somewhat devalued. Shopaholism is an

obvious consequence of exaggeration of the mate-

rial. Therefore, this deviation should be addressed

not as a problem of behavioral disorders, but as a

problem of morality and spirituality. The determi-

nants of human development as a social being are

social values, and hence the value benchmarks of

each person.

4. Shopaholism or oniomania is an addiction. In

general, any dependence should be prevented

by the correct outlook of the world and treated

through exclusion by positive behavioral skills.

Therefore, it is necessary to actualize measures

aimed at the formation of a healthy lifestyle, pro-

tection of the rights and interests of an individ-

ual. Work on general development, the direc-

tion of positive motives of the behavioral func-

tioning of an individual eliminates the inﬂuence

of negative and unpredictable factors of inﬂuence.

This also implies the formation of skills for the

correct exit from stressful situations, psychoemo-

tional discharge, and the skills of positive relax-

ation.

Thus, shopaholism is a deviant behaviour, since it

has the nature of deviations from normal behaviour

with negative consequences for a person. It refers to

the addictive, auto-aggressive kind of behavioural de-

viations. Conditions for effective implementation of

the prevention and treating of shopaholism as a so-

cial phenomenon and the type of deviant behaviour

Prevention of Shopaholism in Students of Higher Education Institutions

105

are: the development of diagnostic and preventive

tools for prevention and corrective and rehabilitation

work, a uniﬁed approach and recommendations for

diagnostic, preventive and corrective and rehabilita-

tion work; development of the program of activity;

drawing up a clear plan of actions, deﬁning the obli-

gations, regulating the order of the of implementation

of the planned measures and determining the condi-

tions for the effective organization of the project im-

plementation; scientiﬁc and methodological support

of the work, formation of the scientiﬁc and method-

ological base of measures, establishment of peer re-

view of the appropriate forms and methods of work.

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