Immigrant status and problem-gambling severity in adolescents: Evidence for moderation by sensation seeking

Sensation Seeking and Gambling Behavior in Adolescence: Can Externalizing Problems Moderate this Relationship?

“…In addition, our results highlight that gambling severity are significantly and positively correlated both with high levels of sensation seeking and with the presence of externalized problems. These data are in line with studies present in the literature that highlight that the desire for excitement, novelty, and intense stimulation, characterizing individuals who have high levels of sensation seeking, is closely connected to gambling severity [24][25][26][27][28]. In addition, the presence of Post hoc analyses showed that the relationship between sensation seeking and gambling severity was significant when externalizing problems were medium (β = 0.26, p = 0.000) and high (β = 0.35, p = 0.002).…”

“…Another recent study found that one of the antecedents of regular gambling was high sensation seeking scores [27]. Moreover, Donati et al [28] showed that sensation seeking has a significant direct effect on gambling severity, with higher levels of sensation seeking being predictors of greater severity. Briefly, such evidence suggests that the pursuit of novelty and intense stimulation, typical of individuals with high scores in sensation seeking, may explain why some youth are attracted to gambling.…”

Attitudes, Risk Factors, and Behaviours of Gambling among Adolescents and Young People: A Literature Review and Gap Analysis

“…Adolescent gamblers who reported gambling to seek excitement were more likely to be at risk for problem gambling, consume alcohol, and possess more gambling permissiongiving cognitions [64], and sensation seeking was found to be associated with comorbid problem gambling and heavy episodic drinking among male and female adolescents [65]. While sensation seeking was shown to be associated with problem gambling, adolescents with high sensation seeking traits were more likely to have gambling problems if they were immigrants, suggesting that adolescent problem gamblers should not be considered a homogeneous group [24].…”

“…Most studies observed whether young people had ever participated in gambling or had gambled within the previous 12 months, and reported the prevalence of problem gambling, which was typically reported as low or moderate risk of problem gambling, or problem gambling. Lifetime participation in gambling rates ranged between 42.1% [10] and 89.9% [20], with the majority of studies that examined gambling participation reporting that around a third or more of adolescents or young adults confirmed that they had gambled at least once in their lifetime [10,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Gambling participation rates during the past 12 months ranged between 18.6% [38] to 85% [23].…”

“…There was consensus among the literature that sensation or excitement seeking was a strong predictor of problem gambling among adolescents and young people [24,36,40,43,[64][65][66][67]. Problem gamblers were reported to be more likely to focus on immediate outcomes than non-problem gamblers [40], and male problem gamblers compared to non-problem gamblers were found to be more focused on the present than on past or future events [68].…”