Anxiety, depression, and stress: Can mental health variables predict panic buying?

The study aims to verify the predictive power of anxiety, depression, and stress over panic buying, and to assess gender differences. Data was collected in Brazil during May 2020 through an online questionnaire which was composed of sociodemographic questions, the Panic Buying Scale (PBS), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to assess anxiety and depression, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) to assess stress. 2297 Brazilians (520 men and 1777 women) aged between 18 and 85 years (M = 39.18 years; SD = 14.10 years) answered the questionnaire. Women reported statistically significant higher means' values for anxiety, depression, and stress than men. Though men reported higher panic buying levels than women, the difference was not statistically significant. The regression models revealed that anxiety and stress were panic buying predictors. Comparing gender, the regression models showed that mental health variables (anxiety and stress) explained a higher variance of men's panic buying values than women's values. Hence, there is a significant moderator gender effect between mental health variables and panic buying, as they explained more of the variance of panic buying for men than for women. Psychological support should be provided to individuals, and they should be alerted and educated to the potentially prejudicial outcomes of this type of consumer behavior. Further studies should investigate antecedents and consequences of panic buying.