Doing It for the Money: The Relationship Between Gambling and Money Attitudes Among College Students

Abstract

Today's college students have grown up with legalized gambling and access to a variety of gambling venues. Compared to the general adult population, rates of disordered gambling among college students are nearly double. Previous research suggests that the desire to win money is a strong motivator to gamble (Neighbors et al. in J Gambl Stud 18:361-370, 2002a); however, there is a dearth of literature on attitudes towards money in relation to gambling behavior. The current study evaluated the association between the four subscales of the Money Attitude Scale (Yamauchi and Templer in J Pers Assess 46:522-528, 1982) and four gambling outcomes (frequency, quantity, consequences and problem severity) in a sample of college students (ages 18-25; N = 2534) using hurdle negative binomial regression model analyses. Results suggest that college students who hold high Power-Prestige or Anxiety attitudes toward money were more likely to gamble and experience greater consequences related to their gambling. Distrust attitudes were negatively associated with gambling behaviors. Retention-Time attitudes were not significantly associated with gambling behaviors and may not be directly relevant to college students, given their often limited fiscal circumstances. These findings suggest that money attitudes may be potential targets for prevention programs in this population.

Anxious spenders: Background factors of financial vulnerability

“…All the above features result in financial vulnerability and helplessness in everyday life. Be in tune with results of Grohs-Müller and Greimel-Fuhrmann (2018) anxious spenders decisions are more emotionally and anxiety attitudes relate positively to gambling behavior (Larimer, 2018). Therefore young people should be considered as a crucial target group of financial education, their purchase behaviour and access to money have changed remarkably during the last few decades (Fraczek and Klimontowicz, 2018).…”

Associations between financial gambling motives, gambling frequency, and level of problem gambling: A meta-analytic review

“…Another avenue for future research is to examine individual differences in attitudes towards money and objective financial success as antecedents of financial motives that may help explain some of the substantial heterogeneity among the effect sizes (see Table 1). For instance, there is some evidence that people who view money as an important indicator of success, prestige, and power are more likely to gamble and to have gambling problems (4,46). Likewise, the extent to which people hold a financially focused self-concept (i.e., placing overriding importance on financial success for self-definition and self-worth; ,47) and feel financially deprived relative to others (personal relative deprivation; ,48) have both been linked with gambling for financial gain and having gambling problems (49)(50)(51)(52).…”

Fashion trendsetting, attitudes toward money, and tendency to regret

“…Phau and Woo, 2008; Roberts and Jones, 2001; Taneja, 2012; Yang and Lester, 2002) have replicated the factor structure of the money attitudes scale. Yamauchi and Templers’ scale has been used with college students to explore relationships between money attitudes and a variety of variables, for example, frequency, quantity, consequences and problem severity of gambling (Lostutter et al , 2019); credit card use and misuse (Roberts and Jones, 2001; Watson, 2009); compulsive and impulsive buying (Roberts and Jones, 2001; Watson, 2009); locus of control (Watson, 2009); ethnicity (Medina et al , 1996); personality factors (Norvilitis et al , 2006), personal needs, social identity and emotions (Wong, 2010) and was found to have acceptable reliability and predictive validity.…”