Interdisciplinary Analysis of College Students' Stress-Driven

Consumption

Haoyi Dai

Faculty of Science and Technology, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, 519807, China

Keywords: College Student, Stress-Driven Consumption, Consumer Behavior.

Abstract: Based on the theory of social psychology and consumer behavior, this study systematically discusses the

dynamic relationship between group pressure and shopping behavior of college students. Through the

integration of compensatory consumption theory, self-regulation failure model and social comparison theory,

the psychological mechanism and group heterogeneity of consumer behavior under pressure were revealed.

The results show that stress significantly drives compensatory consumption through emotional regulation

needs, and gender, grade and consumption channel have moderating effects. Shopping behavior has both the

properties of immediate stress relief and long-term economic risk. In addition, when the shopping software is

opened with a clear goal, the stress driven consumption of college students will be greatly reduced. The results

of this study provide a theoretical basis for understanding the stress-driven consumption of college students,

and provide theoretical support and practical enlightenment for mental health education, consumption

structure optimization and healthy consumption culture construction in colleges and universities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Under the background of popularization of higher

education and digital transformation, Chinese college

students are facing unprecedented multiple pressures.

Compared with the West, Chinese college students

have a big difference in culture and life, so they face

more diversified sources of pressure. At the same

time, the sources of stress of college students in

different grades can not be generalized, and there are

still differences. According to the White Paper on the

Mental Health of Chinese College Students (2023),

the superimposed effects of intensifying academic

competition, increasing employment uncertainty,

social virtualization and family expectations have

made college students' mental health problems

increasingly prominent. In this context, shopping

behavior gradually transcends its economic attributes

and evolves into an important emotion regulation

strategy. Data show that 27.3% of the average

monthly consumption of college students is used for

emotional consumption of non-necessities, and the

characteristics of stress-driven consumption need to

be further studied (China Youth Daily, 2023).

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0657-9768

Stress driven consumption, also known as stress

reduction consumption, has gradually come into

people's vision in today's generally high-pressure

living environment. Pressure-driven consumption not

only involves individual psychological mechanism,

but also is closely related to culture, social structure

and technical environment. For example, the rise of

consumption phenomena with Chinese

characteristics, such as live streaming of tips and

shopping orders, reflects both the penetration of

digital platforms and the social pressure under a

collectivist culture. Wang (2020) found that under

normal circumstances, an individual's decision

making is mainly regulated by the two brain systems

of heat and cold. However, with the increase of the

pressure faced by an individual, the brain heat system

will gradually dominate. At this time, consumers will

have a cognitive bias of self-control, which is

manifested in the decline of self-control at the

consumption level. According to the hyperbolic

discounting theory of behavioral economics, the

short-term discount rate of consumers will be greater

than the long-term discount rate, which is manifested

as an increase in short-term consumption behavior

(Derek, 2008). Impulsive consumption is often

Dai, H.

Interdisciplinary Analysis of College Students’ Stress-Driven Consumption.

DOI: 10.5220/0013833200004708

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

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy (IAMPA 2025), pages 573-577

ISBN: 978-989-758-774-0

573

related to the need for psychological satisfaction.

Sengupta and Zhou (2007), therefore, digital

consumption (such as tipping, online shopping, etc.),

which is more convenient, inductive and conducive to

providing emotional value, is more likely to be

chosen by consumers.

However, most of the existing studies focus on

western consumption theories and lack a systematic

analysis of the interactive relationship between stress

and consumption in the Chinese context. Based on the

theories of social psychology and consumer behavior,

this study integrates compensatory consumption

theory, self-regulation failure model and social

comparison theory to construct a multi-dimensional

analysis framework of "individual-psycho-society",

aiming to reveal the deep mechanism, group

heterogeneity and intervention path of college

students' pressure-driven consumption.

2 THEORETICAL BASIS

2.1 Stress

The types of college students' stress can be

specifically divided into seven levels: academic

pressure, employment pressure, interpersonal

pressure, economic pressure, life adjustment pressure,

psychological pressure and family pressure. Among

them, academic pressure, psychological pressure, life

adaptation pressure and interpersonal pressure are the

factors that can not be ignored to promote college

students' pressure-driven consumption. According to

the resource limitation theory, academic pressure,

psychological pressure and other persistent pressures

often produced by college students occupy college

students' attention resources and lead to the

exhaustion of cognitive resources (Kahneman, 1973).

The exhaustion of cognitive resources makes it

difficult for college students to maintain their firm

willpower. In addition, the delayed discounting effect

of online shopping software and other business

strategies contribute to the pressure-driven

consumption of college students.

2.2 Consumption Behavior

According to the definition of consumption behavior,

consumption behavior is usually divided into rational,

impulse, habit, emotion and uncertainty. Among them,

the pressure-driven consumption of college students

is complex and diversified, with impulsive and

emotional characteristics, and may also have

habituation or unstereotyped characteristics

according to different situations. The stress-driven

consumption of college students is mainly related to

compensatory consumption theory, self-regulation

failure model and social comparison theory.

The theory of compensatory consumption

originates from the hypothesis of "loss

compensation" in psychology, which holds that

individuals make up for psychological or emotional

deficiencies through consumption behaviors (Hama,

2001). In the group of college students, academic

pressure, social isolation or self-identity crisis may

trigger compensatory consumption needs. For

example, the study of Wang et al. (2023) shows that

68.9% of stressful consumption cases of college

students can be explained by this theory, in which

instrumental consumption (such as buying learning

equipment) is significantly related to academic

pressure, while symbolic consumption (such as

buying luxury goods) is more related to emotional

loss.From an essential perspective of needs, such

consumption behavior also aligns with the logic of

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory (1943) —

instrumental consumption can be seen as a pursuit of

ability enhancement within 'self-actualization needs,'

while symbolic consumption is related to the desire

for social recognition within 'esteem needs.' Both are

manifestations of high-level unmet needs under

pressure being compensated through material means.

It is worth noting that the compensatory consumption

of Chinese college students is often combined with

the "face culture" to form a unique phenomenon of

"gift socializing" (such as purchasing on behalf of

others and buying orders), which further strengthens

the social attribute of consumption.

The self-regulation failure model emphasizes the

depleting effect of stress on cognitive resources.

Yan's (2020) fMRI study found that in stressful

situations, activation of the nucleus accumbens

(associated with reward mechanisms) increased by

37%, while activity in the prefrontal cortex

(responsible for executive control) was suppressed.

This imbalance of neural mechanisms leads

individuals to prefer consumption behaviors of

instant gratification over long-term rational decision

making. For example, in a state of high stress, college

students may quickly relieve anxiety through

"impulsive live shopping", but with higher economic

risks.

Social comparison theory has been given new

connotations in the digital age. Zhao Yousha (2025)

points out that social media intensifies the pressure of

keeping up with the Joneses through "peer

consumption display", forming a vicious circle of

"pressure - comparison - re-consumption". For

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example, the listing of luxury goods in the circle of

friends or the time-punching of travel may trigger the

"sense of relative deprivation", prompting individuals

to narrow the gap with the reference group through

consumption. This cycle of "stress-comparison-re-

consumption" is particularly significant among

female college students, whose emotional

compensating effect size (d=0.71) is significantly

higher than that of male college students. Rahardjo et

al. (2023) also confirmed this gender difference

during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that female

college students were more inclined to relieve stress

through online shopping, and their frequency of

consumption behavior as a coping mechanism was

significantly higher than that of males, further

illustrating the cross-situational stability of gender's

moderating role in stress-driven consumption.

3 PROGRESS OF EMPIRICAL

RESEARCH

3.1 Interdisciplinary Integration and

Case Analysis of Pressure-Driven

Consumption

The current empirical research on college students'

pressure-driven consumption presents multi-

dimensional cross-over characteristics. The following

three studies are analyzed respectively from the

influencing factors of consumption behavior,

psychological motivation and consumption

characteristics, forming a progressive research

framework of "micro-mechanism - psychological

path - macro characteristics", which has both

complementarity and limitations.

Chen & Wang (2013) collected the information of

three factors affecting college students' online

shopping (characteristics of online shopping,

commodity factors and personal emotion factors) in

the form of a questionnaire survey, and used analytic

hierarchy process (AHP), Logistic regression model,

analysis of variance and other methods to conduct a

multifaceted study on the factors affecting college

students' impulsive online shopping behavior. The

research results reveal that commodity factors and

browsing time are the main influencing factors of

college students' impulsive online shopping behavior,

and the former has a greater impact. Among them,

commodity price, merchant promotion and

transaction record all have significant influence on

impulsive online shopping of college students, and

promotion is the main reason. At the same time, the

network environment and personal emotion factors

have little impact on college students' impulsive

online shopping. Basically, the network environment

and personal emotion factors have little difference on

college students' shopping experience, and it is

difficult to be the main cause of stress-driven

consumption. Gender, living expenses and time of

exposure to online shopping have little impact on

impulsive online shopping, but gender has a

significant impact on the types of impulsive shopping

goods. This research has various research methods,

reasonable model construction, rigorous and reliable

theory, but it is a pity that the data source is single,

the survey samples are only from Shanxi University

of Technology, Shanxi University and Shanxi

University of Finance and Economics, and the

regional differences of Chinese college students are

not considered, and the data source is only a

questionnaire survey, which has limitations.

Online shopping is becoming more and more

popular due to its convenience and affordability. With

the development of online commerce, the

psychological motivation of students' online

consumption and its behavioriality analysis are

gradually analyzed. Xu & Hou (2012) began their

research from the perspective of social psychology,

from the level of college students' online

consumption psychology and motivation, and then

speculated and analyzed the characteristics of college

students' online consumption behaviors. The research

results indicate that college students have a favorable

attitude toward online shopping, and college students

have a huge potential for online shopping, so it is

necessary to build a standardized and harmonious

online shopping platform. At the same time, college

students themselves also have potential, which has an

immeasurable impact on the construction of the future

Internet of Things platform and the global

development of personalized online shopping. This

study has a novel perspective and unique insights into

the psychological motivation of college students'

online consumption. However, this case study has a

single method and outdated data, which is completely

dependent on other people's research and mostly

comes from surveys conducted several years ago,

which is relatively backward and lacks explanation

for the current environment, so critical research is

needed.

Gao & Ji (2012) took the current situation of

college students' online shopping as the starting point

to analyze the characteristics of college students'

online shopping consumption. At the same time, the

study pointed out that there is fraud in online virtual

shopping, and customers cannot see the real things,

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and may have incomplete or wrong understanding of

the products. They should be carefully screened when

buying, and avoid being cheated by being cheap.

There are security risks in online shopping websites.

College students need to strengthen their awareness

of protection when shopping online, strengthen

prevention of personal privacy information, and

choose legal and compliant websites to avoid being

cheated. In logistics transportation, students should

carefully choose safe and secure logistics companies

to avoid damage to goods and reduce potential losses.

Network payment has risks, network payment

involves loan payment, easy to appear bank card theft

brush, personal information leakage situation, pay

attention to the computer, web security; Improve self-

protection awareness, safeguard their legitimate

interests. The article is logical, thorough analysis and

gives a number of constructive suggestions, but there

are shortcomings in theory, and the description of the

characteristics of college students' online

consumption behavior lacks data support and is rather

empty

3.2 Multipath Analysis of the Action

Mechanism

Stress increases cortisol levels by activating the

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis),

which in turn affects the decision-making brain

region. Evidence from saliva testing showed that for

every 1μg/dL increase in cortisol concentration, the

probability of impulsive consumption increased by

23% (p<0.05). In addition, overactivation of the

nucleus accumbens and short-term reinforcement of

dopamine release make consumption a "neural

reward" that can be followed by guilt and financial

burden.

Shopping behavior regulates mood through two

mechanisms. Increased sense of control and self-

selection of goods can improve self-efficacy and

reduce STAI anxiety index by 15%-20% (Lee &

Byun, 2016). Failure of self-regulation and long-term

reliance on consumption to relieve stress may lead to

the depletion of self-control resources, forming a

negative feedback loop of "pressure-consumption-

more stress".

China's unique collectivist culture exacerbates the

social attributes of consumption. For example, in

order to maintain the social image of "face"

consumption, college students may undertake

expenses beyond their economic means (such as high-

priced dinners). Family expectation pressure, some

students through the purchase of "brand-name goods"

to meet the family's expectation of "success", such

consumption has the characteristics of

intergenerational transmission.

4 RESEARCH INNOVATION

AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Construct an integrated model and propose an

"individual-psychological-social" three-dimensional

model, incorporating cerebral neurological indicators

(such as fMRI data), digital consumption logs (such

as Taobao browsing records) and cultural context

variables (such as collectivism scores) to enhance

explanatory power. Expansion of virtual consumption

theory: Aiming at the meta-universe consumption

scenario, the "digital compensation theory" is

proposed, emphasizing the substitutive role of virtual

goods in constructing the ideal self.

Develop a dynamic detection system, integrate

smart wristband (monitoring heart rate variability,

skin conductance) and consumption APP log, and

track the space-time correlation between pressure and

consumption in real time. Ecological instantaneous

Assessment (EMA) can capture the time-lag effect

between stress peak and consumption decision by

pushing questionnaires through smart phones, and

reduce recall bias.

Through virtual scenes to simulate consumption

impulse, train students to identify and reconstruct

irrational consumption beliefs based on machine

learning algorithm, combined with consumption

frequency and debt ratio to predict risk individuals,

push customized intervention information. Ethical

boundary exploration: For virtual consumption (such

as NFT purchase) in the meta-universe, it is necessary

to establish "digital consumption ethical guidelines"

to prevent addictive behaviors and property losses

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the theories of social psychology and

consumer behavior, this study systematically

discusses the relationship between group pressure and

shopping behavior of college students. By integrating

the compensatory consumption theory, self-

regulation failure model and social comparison

theory, it reveals the psychological mechanism and

group heterogeneity of consumer behavior under

stressful situations. The study found that there is a

dynamic relationship between stress and

consumption behavior. With the increase of stress, the

thermal system of the brain's two major systems of

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576

cold and heat will occupy a dominant position, thus

promoting impulse consumption and producing

pressure-driven consumption; Under the influence of

persistent pressure such as academic pressure and

psychological pressure, college students make up for

the psychological or emotional deficiency through

consumption behavior, which is manifested as

instrumental consumption or symbolic consumption.

In particular, college students' compensatory

consumption is often combined with face culture to

form a unique consumption phenomenon; The

exhaustion of cognitive resources brought by pressure

prompts college students to produce impulsive

behavior, which is more likely to produce impulsive

consumption, resulting in pressure-driven

consumption. This study found that stress affects

consumption behavior through neurobiology,

cognitive emotion and sociocultural multipaths, and

the group heterogeneity is significant.

In the future, interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g.,

neuroeconomics, cultural psychology) and

technological innovation (e.g., big data tracking, VR

intervention) are needed to build an explanatory

framework that takes into account individual

differences and cultural contexts. This will not only

help improve the theoretical system of consumer

behavior, but also provide a scientific basis for the

construction of a mental health support system for

young people with Chinese characteristics, and guide

Chinese college students to consume scientifically

and healthily. The ultimate goal is to guide college

students to form a "stress adaptive consumption"

mode through precise intervention, so as to achieve a

balance between short-term emotional relief and

long-term financial health.

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