Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS) - knowledge Center of Autism

Table of Contents

What is the BSAS test

BSAS background and introduction

Firstly, let us quickly learn about the BSAS. The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS) was a new method and tool. This new BSAS test was developed by researchers at the University of Bergen. Bergen is a beautiful city.

They want to assess peoples’ shopping addiction within the framework of behavioral addictions. There were a lot of shopping problems for most people. The method and BSAS test is focus on the core addiction elements to help people to recognize the addiction.

The BSAS is the first scale designed to fully integrate shopping addiction into the broader addiction paradigm, making it a crucial tool for researchers and clinicians. The BSAS test got a great improvement. People can easily use this new BSAS test to identify themselves.

It was constructed based on criteria that align with established models of addiction, ensuring its content validity. The scale includes items that reflect seven core elements of addiction, which are critical for diagnosing compulsive shopping behaviors.

Purpose of BSAS

The primary purpose of the BSAS is to provide a reliable and valid measure and screening tool of shopping addiction. Before designing the BSAS，there were a lot of tool to check the shopping addiction. but they have some problem, such as Excessive Scale Length of the tool and Inconsistent Conceptual Definitions and Measurement Methods. The BSAS have some great improvements. Researchers hypothesized that scores on the BSAS would correlate positively with similar constructs, such as compulsive buying tendencies, while showing less correlation with unrelated constructs. This approach aims to establish both convergent and discriminant validity for the scale

The BSAS serves multiple functions:

Assessment: It helps identify individuals who may be struggling with compulsive shopping behaviors.
Research Tool: It provides a standardized method for studying shopping addiction in various populations.
Clinical Application: Clinicians can use the scale to inform treatment strategies for individuals exhibiting problematic shopping behaviors.

Format of BSAS

The BSAS consists of a brief set of items designed to capture the essence of shopping addiction as defined by established addiction criteria.

The format includes statements related to shopping behaviors, emotional responses to shopping, and consequences associated with excessive shopping problems.

Respondents show the willness by choosing different options. It indicate their agreement or disagreement, typically ranging from “completely disagree” to “completely agree” for each item.

Key features of the BSAS include:

Item Structure: The scale is composed of several items that reflect core addiction symptoms.
Scoring: Every person finishes the question, they will get a final score. Higher scores indicate greater levels and probability of shopping addiction.
Psychometric Properties: The BSAS has demonstrated strong reliability (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.80) and validity through various statistical analyses, including factor analysis which confirmed its one-dimensional structure

The 7 dimension of BSAS

The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS) is designed to assess the risk of shopping addiction through seven distinct and different dimensions with all the people. This new screening tool has seven addiction criteria. According to the research paper and data, the tool was working well. Each dimension reflects a specific aspect of addictive behavior related to shopping. Here are the seven dimensions of the BSAS:

Salience: This dimension of BSAS measures how central shopping is to an individual’s life. It assesses whether thoughts about shopping dominate the person’s mind and influence their daily activities.
Mood Modification: This aspect evaluates whether shopping serves as a means to alter one’s mood, providing temporary relief from negative feelings or stress.
Tolerance: This dimension of BSAS looks at whether an individual requires increasingly larger amounts of shopping or spending to achieve the same level of satisfaction or excitement.
Withdrawal Symptoms: This dimension of BSAS assesses any negative emotional or physical symptoms experienced when not engaging in shopping, indicating a dependence on behavior.
Conflict: This aspect of BSAS measures whether shopping leads to interpersonal or intrapersonal conflicts. Such as issues with family, friends, or oneself due to excessive shopping behavior. Shopping addicts may neglect work, studies, or family responsibilities due to their shopping habits. Shopping addicts may give up hobbies and leisure activities they once enjoyed in favor of shopping.
Relapse: This dimension of BSAS evaluates the tendency to return to problematic shopping behaviors after periods of abstinence or controlled spending. For example, people visit shopping malls or browsing shopping websites ad, these can trigger and make relapses in shopping addicts. Some people will want to go shopping when they find the ad. There are also more specific reasons needed to further investigate.
Presenting Problems: This final dimension of BSAS assesses the extent to which shopping addiction contributes to other problems in life, such as financial difficulties, emotional distress, or relationship issues. people will get worried when they make these issues. then will fell regret. These problems have a huge impact on people. It must need to be solved to help people get a better life.

How to calculate the BSAS score

Complete the Questionnaire of BSAS

The BSAS consists of 7 core criteria, each reflecting one of the seven dimensions of shopping addiction (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, relapse, and presenting problems).

With 7 different core criteria of BSAS, there are 4 items of each criteria. So it has 28 items in total.

Each item is rated on five different options. With these 5 options, it was ranging from 0 (Completely Disagree) to 4 (Completely Agree).

Score Each Item of BSAS:

For each item of BSAS you respond to, assign the corresponding score based on your level of agreement:

0 = Completely Disagree
1 = Disagree
2 = Neither Disagree Nor Agree
3 = Agree
4 = Completely Agree

BSAS Test	Completely Disagree	Disagree	Neither Disagree Nor Agree	Agree	Completely agree
Specific score	0	1	2	3	4

Calculate the Total Score of BSAS

Sum the scores for all 28 items of 7 different dimensions. The total score can range from 0 to 112. We hope you can carefully record and calculate your total score on BSAS. Taking the time to complete the questionnaire and obtaining an objective score is the ultimate goal. Only with the score can you proceed to deeper research.

Why does BSAS test have two types of scores?

When you calculate your score and refer to the guidelines, you will find two types of results based on different maximum scores of BSAS. Why is one reference based on a maximum score of 7?

This is because the BSAS test is divided into 7 dimensions, it has 7 core creteria, each with 4 questions and items. From a simplified perspective and easy operation, if you show a strong inclination and agree toward a particular type of criteria, the answer of agree would give you 1 point, and disagreeing would give you 0 points.

Thus, the maximum score of BSAS across 7 dimensions would be 7. Now I think you will understand the reason for the possible 7.

However, if you calculate based on individual questions and items, each of these items has 5 options with a maximum of 4 points. So the total for 28 questions would be 112 points.

The is other way to calculate your score of BSAS in details. This represents a more detailed scoring method of BSAS. You can calculate 2 points at the same time.

If we use the 7-point system, it was easy to use and save your time. The scores between 0 and 3 is low. The score of this range are considered to indicate no shopping addiction and problem. You don’t need to worried about it. Whereas scores above 3 suggest the presence of shopping addiction. If your final score is higher than 3, you need to pay attention to it.

How to interpret your BSAS scores?

Understanding Your Total Score of BSAS

Interpret the Score: A higher total score indicates a greater risk of shopping addiction.

According to the reaserch paper detailis of BSAS, a possible cut-off score for this BSAS test may include the scoring of 3 or 4 on at least four of the seven different criteria.

In other words, We have mentioned each categories with different core criteria. If you agree or strongly agree with the questions in four out of the seven categories of BSAS. It indicates a strong possibility that you may have shopping addiction tendencies. This is an easy way to help you recognize your shopping addiction.

However, this conclusion requires further research and investigation of BSAS. So it should not be taken as definitive. This score is just a reference.

Is the BSAS test reliable and valid?

Reliability of BSAS

The BSAS exhibits strong internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of approximately 0.87 to 0.88 across various studies.

This indicates that the items on the scale consistently measure the same underlying construct of shopping addiction.

Additionally, the scale’s factor structure has been validated through confirmatory factor analysis, yielding good fit indices, such as RMSEA = 0.064, CFI = 0.983, and TLI = 0.973, which further supports its reliability in measuring the intended dimensions of shopping addiction.

Validity of BSAS

The BSAS has shown good construct validity. It correlates positively with other established measures of compulsive buying behavior, such as the Compulsive Buying Measurement Scale (CBMS), with correlation coefficients around 0.80.

This indicates strong convergent validity, meaning that the BSAS effectively measures what it intends to measure—shopping addiction— by aligning closely with other recognized scales in this domain.

Moreover, the BSAS also demonstrates discriminant validity, as it shows less correlation with unrelated constructs.

The scale has been associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, while inversely related to age and certain personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness and agreeableness) among different populations.

Further improvement of BSAS

Although the BSAS scale demonstrates good reliability and validity, it also has certain limitations:

Cross-sectional study: he current research is cross-sectional, making it impossible to determine the causal direction of relationships between variables. There are so mang possible variables and factors will influence the outcome. We think future longitudinal studies can provide a better understanding of the developmental trajectory of shopping addiction and its causal relationships with other variables. We hope we can get a more accurate data to find out the conclusion.
Sample bias: The study sample has an overrepresentation of women and may include self-selection bias (e.g., individuals interested in excessive shopping are more likely to participate). So this problem will have unpredictable effects on the investigations and outcome. We expect the Future research can use more representative and different samples to ensure the generalizability of the findings and outcome. To avoid the sample bias.
Online survey: This research study collected data through online surveys. Although it is very convenient and useful,it save the research money and time. This way it may cause some bias and wrong data from different buyers. there are a lot of difference between these two types of people. Future studies should explore the similarities and differences between online and offline shopping addiction. Maybe it can hand out the investigation paper in the supermarket or school.

The BSAS Test

BSAS Test	Completely Disagree	Disagree	Neither Disagree Nor Agree	Agree	Completely agree
Specific score	0	1	2	3	4

Shopping/buying is the most important thing in my life.
I think about shopping/buying things all the time.
I spend a lot of time thinking of or planning shopping/buying.
Thoughts about shopping/buying keep popping in my head.
I shop in order to feel better.
I shop/buy things in order to change my mood.
I shop/buy things in order to forget about personal problems.
I shop/buy things in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness, loneliness, and/or depression.
I shop/buy so much that it negatively affects my daily obligations (e.g., school and work).
I give less priority to hobbies, leisure activities, job/studies, or exercise because of shopping/buying.
I have ignored love partner, family, and friends because of shopping/buying.
I often end up in arguments with other because of shopping/buying.
I feel an increasing inclination to shop/buy things.
I shop/buy much more than I had intended/planned.
I feel I have to shop/buy more and more to obtain the same satisfaction as before.
I spend more and more time shopping/buying.
I have tried to cut down on shopping/buying without success.
I have been told by others to reduce shopping/buying without listening to them.
I have decided to shop/buy less, but have not been able to do so.
I have managed to limit shopping/buying for periods, and the experienced relapse.
I become stressed if obstructed from shopping/buying things.
I become sour and grumpy if I for some reasons cannot shop/buy things when I feel like it.
I feel bad if I for some reason are prevented from shopping/buying things.
I there has been a while since I last shopped I feel a strong urge to shop/buy things.
I shop/buy so much that it has caused economic problems.
I shop/buy so much that it has impaired my well-being.
I have worried so much about my shopping that it sometimes has made me sleepless.
I have been bothered with poor conscience because of shopping/buying.