Influence of Body Image Dissatisfaction on Impulse Buying among Young Adults in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate body image dissatisfaction as one of the factors that affect impulse buying. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of body image dissatisfaction on impulse buying among young adults in Malaysia as well as to examine the gender differences in body image dissatisfaction and impulse buying among young adults in Malaysia. The quantitative research design, like simple linear regression and cross-sectional studies, was applied in this study. The reverse scoring of the body image satisfaction questionnaire (BISQ) consisting of 23 items and the impulsive buying scale of 9 items were used to measure self-perception of specific body parts and satisfaction with overall body physical fitness and vitality. In contrast, the impulsive buying scale will measure the respondent’s tendency for impulsive buying behaviour. The 29.00 version of IBM SPSS statistics software was adopted to analyze the data and test the hypothesis accordingly. A sample of 407 young adults in Malaysia (50.6% male, 49.4% female) participated in the study. Results revealed that there are significant gender differences in body image dissatisfaction among young adults in Malaysia, and there are significant gender differences in impulse buying among young adults in Malaysia. also, body image dissatisfaction has a significant positive influence on impulse buying among young adults in Malaysia. There are some limitations to this study, such as self-report measures. These findings point to the potential practical and theoretical implications, for example, about reducing impulse buying through improving body image satisfaction by doing awareness related to body positivity.