They prefer to spend the money that children cost on leisure activities

Despite falling real incomes: More and more singles and childless couples are going on a spending spree and enjoying their free life. Torn between consumer stress and spending sprees, they do not shy away from debt. Every second single person aged 25 to 49 now feels that they spend too much money in their free time (51%). Compared to families with children (37%), childless couples (49%) also live considerably more beyond their means. This is the result of a new representative survey conducted by the B-A-T Leisure Research Institute, in which 2,600 people aged 14 and over were asked about their attitudes to consumption and purchasing behaviour.

The growing leisure and consumption-orientation of life is reinforcing the trend towards a single society. The proportion of singles aged between 25 and 49 has more than doubled in the last 25 years, as have visitors and sales in pubs, discos, fitness centres and shopping centres. Those who opt for consumption instead of children can afford more in life, but also run the risk of living beyond their means in order to keep up with their friends and leisure clique. In this way, the desire to consume can become a compulsion to consume.

Childless into the total world of leisure:
Shopping addiction - shopping stress - shopping frenzy

In each case, 44 per cent of the singles and childless couples surveyed confessed that they are virtually addicted to consumer offers that cost money. They are showing the first symptoms of shopping addiction and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to escape the pressures of consumption. "Shopping has two meanings for childless people: a zest for life and the prevention of boredom," says Prof Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the B-A-T Institute. "For them, shopping centres and department stores are not only havens of consumer experience, but also refuge castles to escape boredom and loneliness." Sometimes they only consume out of frustration, as a substitute for a good attitude to life. They want to treat themselves to or afford something good - regardless of whether they really need it.

A third of all singles and childless people (32% each) are already suffering the consequences of their consumer stress, i.e. they sometimes buy consumer goods (for hobbies and sport, for example) and then hardly have time to make use of them. They almost become victims of their own demands and hardly know how to free themselves from this dilemma between consumption and time. Because: "Consumption also consumes time," says Prof Opaschowski. "Those who consume a lot quickly suffer from a lack of time." When singles have ever higher consumption demands, their subjective feeling of time scarcity inevitably increases. What is the point of over-consumption if they can no longer enjoy what they have bought in peace and quiet? As a result, they try to consume more and more in the same amount of time and combine their consumption desires with one another - for example, combining shopping with meeting friends or going on holiday with learning new sports. In this way, the intensity of their consumption decreases, but the free availability of their time decreases.

Time is almost running out for them when it comes to consumption. One in six singles (17%) now openly admits: 'Sometimes I buy as if in a frenzy. The shopping addicts are under an inescapable inner compulsion and only give up when they have found a very specific item. There are significantly more women than men among shopping addicts. Women are also more likely to admit that they are sometimes almost unstoppable when shopping. They always want and have to have more.