Financially focused self-concept in disordered gambling: comparisons between non-disordered and disordered gambling subtypes

Abstract

Background

Having a self-concept that is focused on a single life domain has been implicated in various emotional and behavioral disorders, including depression, body image disorders, and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Herein, we extended research on having a focused self-concept by testing the idea that a self-concept focused on financial success is a core feature of disordered gambling. We also hypothesized that the degree of financial focus varies as a function of disordered gambling subtypes described in the Pathways Model. Specifically, we expected that emotionally vulnerable and anti-social impulsive disordered gamblers would report greater financial focus relative to behaviorally conditioned disordered gamblers.

Method and Results

In Study 1, a community sample of people with gambling problems (n = 215) completed measures that assessed disordered gambling subtype, financially focused self-concept, and disordered gambling severity. As hypothesized, financial focus was greater among the emotionally vulnerable and anti-social impulsive subtypes relative to the behaviorally conditioned subtype, regardless of disordered gambling severity. Study 2 (n = 479) was a preregistered replication and extension of Study 1. Again, financial focus was greater among emotionally vulnerable and anti-social impulsive subtypes (relative to the behaviorally conditioned subtype), regardless of disordered gambling severity. The pattern of means for financial focus by disordered gambling subtype was distinct from that of gambling-related cognitive distortions. Moreover, as predicted, financial focus was greater among disordered gamblers relative to non-disordered gamblers.

Conclusion

The findings provide a novel perspective on the psychopathology underlying disordered gambling, and suggest that a financial focused self-concept may hold explanatory power for the development of other behavioral addictions.

Keywords:

• Addictive behaviors
• disordered gambling
• psychopathology
• self-concept

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Unfortunately, one item from the 10-item anti-social traits and behaviors subscale (“If necessary, I’ll do illegal things unrelated to gambling”) of the Gambling Pathways Questionnaire (GPQ) was excluded from data collection in error. To effectively deal with this error, we contacted one of the developers of the GPQ who recommended that we exclude participants from the analyses whose subtype classification would change had they provided a response to the missing item (n=12). Thus, we are confident that participants included in the analyses were properly classified.

2 The results remained virtually the same after including participants with missing data in the analyses using multiple imputation. See OSF.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an Ontario Problem Gambling Research Center Research Grant [#3409] to Wohl.