Gambling in Emerging Adulthood: the Role of Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, Antisocial Behaviors, and Alcohol Use

AbstractEmerging adults (ages 18 –29) display higher prevalence of gambling participation and problem gambling as well as co-occurrence with other risk behaviors compared to other age groups. Consequences of these co-occurring conditions may lead to psychological symptoms, behavioral problems, and socioeconomic and medical costs. Depressive symptoms, antisocial behaviors, and alcohol use are known risk factors for gambling participation and problem gambling. However, scarce research has examined the co-occurrence of those adolescent risk factors and later gambling behaviors in emerging adulthood longitudinally. Using multip le waves of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data, we examined the relationship between earlier depressive symptoms, antisocial behaviors, alcohol use, and gambling behaviors at wave III, and later gambling participation and problem gambling (wave IV) in emergin g adults ages 18–29, using multinomial logistic regression. Our findings suggest that earlier antisocial behaviors and gambling behaviors increased later risk for gambling participation and problem gambling. Past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking were associated with the increased risk of gambli ng participation but not problem gambling. Earlier depressive symptoms decreased the risk of gambling participation later among those who endorsed antisocial behaviors. Emerging adulthood may be a critical developmental period in the development of comorbid condit...
Source: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Category: Addiction Source Type: research