Solitary gambling mediates the risk pathway from anxiety sensitivity to excessive gambling: Evidence from a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment study.

Abstract

Anxiety and gambling problems co-occur at high rates. Social learning theory (SLT) suggests that people high in anxiety engage in excessive gambling to reduce negative affect. Because anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a vulnerability factor associated with addictive behaviors, it is important to identify mediators in this high-risk pathway. Emerging research shows that social context mediates associations between anxiety vulnerability and addictive behaviors. This literature shows that anxiety-prone people are at increased risk for substance problems because they engage in frequent solitary substance use. Theory would predict a similar pathway to gambling problems, but this remains to be tested. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine solitary gambling as an explanatory variable in the anxiety pathway to gambling problems. We used a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design. After completing baseline measures, young adults (N = 108) were asked to report daily on their gambling behavior over a 30-day period. Bias corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals (CI) supported 1 hypothesized indirect effect from baseline AS (Time 1) to EMA time spent gambling (Time 2) via EMA solitary gambling (Time 2; B = 0.019, 95% CI [0.002, 0.045]). This suggests that emerging adults with high levels of AS at baseline engaged in frequent solitary gambling over the 30-day EMA sampling period, which in turn predicted more time spent gambling over this same time period. Our results show that solitary gambling mediates the relation between anxiety vulnerability and excessive gambling. Understanding how social context relates to excessive gambling can help create interventions to reduce solitary gambling among anxiety-prone individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record

In-Play Betting, Sport Broadcasts, and Gambling Severity: A Survey Study of Spanish Sports Bettors on the Risks of Betting on Sport While Watching It

“…Similarly, in an Australian-based sample, 31.5% of sports bettors reported watching sport alone (Hing, Lamont, Vitartas, & Fink, 2015b). The combination of solitude and gambling can be problematic, as many anxiety-coping gambling habits derive from solitary gambling (Bristow et al, 2018).…”

Risky Gambling Behaviors: Associations with Mental Health and a History of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

“…Individuals with higher levels of well-being are more likely to engage in emotion regulatory strategies, such as reappraisal (Banyard et al, 2017;Gross & John, 2003), and have more positive appraisals regarding their life circumstances (Diener, 2009). In contrast, lower levels of well-being are associated with maladaptive cognitions and coping styles (KL et al, 2017), which may lead some people to gamble in an effort to distract themselves from distressing emotions (Blaszczynski & Nower, 2002;Bristow et al, 2018;Moon et al, 2017). Researchers have consistently demonstrated that greater levels of wellbeing protect individuals from experiencing ACE-related harms (e.g., poor psychological and physical health) after a history of childhood adversity (Baiden et al, 2016;Banyard et al, 2017;Crandall et al, 2019).…”

Online Gambling's Associations With Gambling Disorder and Related Problems in a Representative Sample of Young Swiss Men

“…In line with these findings about interpersonal conflicts, almost-exclusively-online gamblers did not have higher levels of social anxiety disorder than offline gamblers, whereas mixed gamblers did. This is particularly remarkable because one might expect individuals with higher levels of social anxiety disorder to tend to engage in solitary gambling activities online ( 41 ). However, based on our data, it could be hypothesised that mixed gamblers more often encounter interpersonal conflict, leading to greater feelings of shame in social interactions and thus symptoms of social anxiety disorder, whereas almost-exclusively-online gamblers report less interpersonal conflict and fewer symptoms of social anxiety disorder.…”