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Objective: Compulsive buying is controversial in clinical psychiatry. Although it is defined as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, other personality aspects besides compulsivity are related to compulsive buying. Recent studies suggest that compulsivity and impulsivity might represent a continuum, with several psychiatric disorders lying between these two extremes. In this sense, and following the perspective of dimensional psychiatry, symptoms of impulsivity and compulsivity should correlate even in a non-clinical sample. The present study aims to investigate whether these two traits are associated in a healthy adult sample. Methods: We evaluated 100 adults, with no self-reported psychiatric disorders, using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 and two scales of compulsive buying. Results: Using multiple linear regressions, we found that impulsivity accounted for about 15% of variance in the compulsive-buying measure. Conclusions: Our results suggest that an association between impulsivity and compulsive buying occurs even in non-clinical samples, evidence that compulsivity and impulsivity might form a continuum and that compulsive buying might be an intermediate condition between these two personality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study investigated how factors of temperament and early maladaptive schemas predict psychiatric symptoms, as well as how they mediate the relation between early life stress and psychiatric symptoms in adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 200 university students. Data was collected through a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Adult Self-Report Inventory, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Young Schema Questionnaire, and the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised. Results: A model including early maladaptive schemas, harm avoidance (temperament factor), and early life stress explained 69% of the variation of the psychiatric symptoms; among the predictors, early maladaptive schemas explained 31% of psychiatric symptoms, while harm avoidance explained 25%. Most of the predictive power associated with early life stress can be better explained by early maladaptive schemas and, to a lesser extent, harm avoidance. Conclusion: By managing these processes therapeutically, deleterious effects associated with early life stress can be minimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]