Using the risk-return model to explain Gambling Disorder symptoms in youth: An empirical investigation with Italian adolescents

Historically, individual diferences research has sought to explain problem-gambling severity in adolescence by means of unitary “risk-taking” traits, such as sensation seeking and impulsivity, implying that these personality traits account for risk-taking tendencies across diferent types of behaviors and situations. However, increasing empirical evidence suggests that risk taking seems to be better conceptualized as a domain-specifc construct. In the current study, we adopted a psychological risk-return framework, which posits that perceptions of perceived risks and benefts predict gambling risk attitudes, which in turn, account for variance in Gambling Disorder (GD) symptoms in adolescents. The study involved 296 Italian adolescents (68% boys, Mage=17.76, SD=1.17). Participants completed the risk-taking, risk perception, and expected benefts scales from the Adolescent Domain Specifc Risk Taking (DOSPERT) scale (Barkley-Levenson et al. in Dev Cognitive Neurosci 3: 72–83, 2013), as well as the Gambling Behavior Scale for Adolescents (GBS-A; as reported (Primi et al. in Gambling Behavior Scale for Adolescents in, Hogrefe, Florence, 2015) were administered. Consistent with predictions, risk-taking scores for the Gambling domain predicted adolescent gambling outcomes, relative to the other DOSPERT risk-domains (Ethical, Health/Safety, Recreational, Social). Additionally, we found that greater Gambling risk perceptions were associated with lower risk-taking scores, whereas greater perceived expected benefts were associated with higher risk-taking scores. Moreover, we found signifcant indirect efects between perceived risks and benefts and problem-gambling severity, mediated via Gambling risk-taking scores, though expected benefts demonstrated a stronger indirect efect. These results have important implications for practice as they emphasize that specifc interventions aimed at preventing problem gambling in adolescents should address their perceptions about gambling benefts.