Hopelessness in gambling disorder: relationship with affect, alexithymia and gambling motives in young adults

ABSTRACT

Gambling disorder has an increasing impact among young adults, which is a relevant life period in which emotional states and their management are of great importance. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between positive and negative affect, alexithymia, gambling motives, and hopelessness, and the predictive role of affect, alexithymia, and gambling motives on hopelessness. The sample comprised 83 participants, 92.8% men and 7.2% women who were in treatment for gambling disorder. Age ranged from 18 to 30 years (M = 24.83; SD = 3.80). Results showed that hopelessness correlated positively with negative affect, alexithymia and coping-related gambling motives, and negatively with positive affect. Similarly, social motives correlated with alexithymia and negative affect. In turn, coping-related motives and alexithymia also correlated with negative affect. Finally, motives for enhancement were predictors of hopelessness. These results may provide guidance for further clinical and preventive interventions in young populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Gambling disorder
• hopelessness
• affect
• alexithymia
• gambling motives

Ethical approval

The ethics committee is from the University of Deusto (Spain), which does not apply a protocol number to specific research projects

Acknowledgements

We thank that this manuscript and research was supported by grants from the Spanish Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs (2018I002).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Preregistration statement

No preregistration was declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data not available due to ethical/legal/commercial restrictions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana Estévez

Ana Estévez Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the University of Deusto in Bilbao. I am responsible for the line: “Non-substance addictions and associated cognitive-emotional and relational processes” at the University of Deusto. Member of the National Gaming Council in Spain. Director of the Master ́s Degree in General Health Psychology

Paula Jauregui

Paula Jauregui Lecturer in the University of Deusto. PhD in Psychology. Researcher on behavioral addictions (most specially, gambling disorder), impulsive behaviors, cognitive and emotional processes, and anxious and depressive disorders, amongst other topics

Janire Momeñe

Janire Momeñe General health psychologist. Researcher at the University of Deusto and psychologist in private practice.

Nerea Etxaburu

Nerea Etxaburu General Health Psychologist and doctoral student. I participate in a research team at the University of Deusto specialising in non-substance addictions

Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez

Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez is a Serra Húnter Lecturer at the Department of Library, Information, and Communication, University of Barcelona. He worked for two years (2016-2018) as a postdoctoral researcher at the International Gaming Research Unit in Nottingham Trent University, UK. He was also a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellow at the Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL. His research interests are predominantly oriented towards understanding advertising-induced cognitive distortions in sports betting