College Student Beliefs About Wagering: An Evaluation of the Adolescent Gambling Expectancies Survey

Abstract

Expectancy theory posits that decisions to engage in a given behavior are closely tied to expectations of the outcome of that behavior. Gambling outcome expectancies have predicted adolescent gambling and gambling problems. When high school students’ outcome expectancies were measured by Wickwire, Whelan and Meyers (2010), the Adolescent Gambling Expectancy Survey (AGES) revealed five categories of expectancies that were each predictive of gambling frequency and pathology. The present study aimed to explore if the AGES could be successfully replicated with college students. When administered to a diverse college student population, factor analyses identified five factors similar to those found in the high school sample. Several factors of the AGES were also found to predict gambling frequency and gambling problems for college students. Gambling frequency and gambling activity preference were also addressed.

The Moderating Effect of Gender on the Relation Between Expectancies and Gambling Frequency Among College Students

“…In a sample of adolescents, the AGES factors have been shown to have an internal consistency from .70 to .80 with two-week test-retest reliability from .54 to .76. In a recent validation study, the five AGES factors were replicated in a college student sample (Ginley et al, 2013). …”

“…In order to evaluate if the AGES would replicate in a college student sample, Ginley and colleagues (2013) collected data from a sample of 421 college students and found that the factor structure for gambling outcome expectancies among adolescents was very similar for college students. These findings suggested that gambling expectancies endorsed by adolescents remain relevant for college students.…”

“…In the present study, the Ginley et al (2013) dataset was used to examine gender as a moderator of the relation between outcome expectancies and gambling frequency. Based upon previous research, it is hypothesized that males will be more likely to endorse expectancies of material gain and positive self-evaluation and that greater endorsement of these expectancies will be associated with more frequent gambling.…”

Ecological Momentary Assessment of the Relationship between Positive Outcome Expectancies and Gambling Behaviour

“…There is now consistent cross-sectional evidence across samples of varying ages, cultures, and settings that there is an association between problem gambling severity and related harms and positive outcome expectancies. Specifically, evidence indicates that problem gambling severity is associated with specific positive outcome expectancies, including enjoyment/arousal or excitement; self-enhancement, positive self-evaluation or ego enhancement; money or material gain; escape, negative affect, or sedating; and social outcome expectancies [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], as well as global positive outcome expectancies involving a belief that gambling will make one feel better [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. There is also limited prospective research that positive outcome expectancies (excitement, escape, and ego enhancement) predict subsequent gambling problems [ 37 ].…”

Does context matter? A multilevel analysis of gambling settings among undergraduates

“…A largest number of these studies have concentrated on student gamblers' motivations and psychiatric profiles (Atkinson, Sharp, Schmitz, & Yaroslavsky, 2012;Cummins, Nadorff, & Kelly, 2009;Ginley, Whelan, Meyers, Relyea, & Pearlson, 2014a;Ginley, Whelan, Relyea, Meyers, & Pearlson, 2014b;Ginley et al, 2015;Lee, 2013;Martin et al, 2010;Quinlan, Goldstein, & Stewart, 2014;Seifert & Wulfert, 2011;Thrasher, Andrew, & Mahony, 2011;Wu & Tang, 2012). For example, Quinlan et al (2014) found that coping gambling motivations positively predicted if an individual would gamble alone, while social gambling motivations negatively predicted gambling alone and positively predicted gambling with friends.…”