Sensation Seeking, Superstition Thinking and Attitude as Risk Factors for Problem Gambling Among Adolescents

Research on gambling has reported that adolescents are widely involved in gambling activities (Derevensky & Gupta, 2000; Ste-Marie, Gupta & Derevensky, 2002). A high percentage of adolescents are at risk for developing gambling problems, with boys more likely than girls to be problem gamblers (e.g. Arsenault, Ladouceur & Vitaro, 2001). For this reason adolescent gambling has become a focal point of much of the adolescent risk-taking research (see Johansson et al., 2009 for a review). Recently increasing attention has been directed towards the role of non cognitive factors in order to identify the risk factors for problem gambling. Specifically, several researches have reported that at risk gamblers have higher levels of sensation seeking (Hurt et al., 2008) and superstitious thinking (Toplak et al., 2007) and more positive attitude towards gambling than not at risk gamblers (Delfabbro et al., 2009). The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of sensation seeking, superstitious thinking and attitude towards gambling on at risk gambling in male adolescents. The sample was composed of 549 Italian male adolescents with a mean age of 16.94 years (S.D.= 1.59). The South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA) (Winter, Stinchfield, & Fulkerson, 1993) was administered to measure adolescents’ risk for gambling problems. Participants also completed the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) (Hoyle et al., 2002), the Superstitious Thinking Scale (STS, Kokis et al., 2002) and the Attitudes Towards Gambling scale (Delfabbro, et al., 2009). Results showed that 70% of the respondents were not at risk gamblers, whereas 30% of them could be classified as at risk gamblers. A logistic regression analysis has been conducted to investigate the impact of measured variables (sensation seeking, superstitious thinking and attitude towards gambling) on risk for gambling problems (not at risk vs at risk). Results indicated that the model was statistically significant (2(3) = 27.29, p <.001, Nagelkerke R2= .15), and that it was able correctly to classify 73% of respondents. Each considered factor has been found to have a predictive power on risk for gambling problems, indicating that adolescents with high levels of sensation seeking, superstitious thinking, and positive attitude towards gambling are more likely to be at risk gamblers. The current findings suggest that non cognitive factors should be included in intervention programs aiming to prevent at risk gambling behavior among adolescents.