Impulsivity, negative affectivity, and personality psychopathology: Their relation to the development of problem gambling.

Much o f the recent literature in the area o f problem gambling has focused on impulsivity and negative affectivity as major independent dimensions that contribute to the development o f pathological gambling. Personality disorders have also been identified as common comorbid factors in samples o f problem and pathological gamblers. However, few studies in the area o f personality psychopathology and gambling have gone beyond simply citing comorbidity statistics. Many of the personality disorders that have been identified in samples o f pathological gamblers have impulsivity and negative affectivity as key characteristics. Using both a referred sample (n=97) and a student sample o f gamblers (n=486), the present study proposed to test whether personality disorders account for additional variance in the extent o f problem gambling above and beyond impulsivity and negative affectivity. Gender was also tested as a possible moderator in this relationship. Two personality disorder measures were included that identify dimensional scores for all 10 personality disorders. Additionally, measures of impulsivity, sensation seeking, positive affectivity, negative affectivity, and reward and punishment sensitivity were included as the temperament variables in the study. The variables were reduced using Principal Components Analysis and the component scores were used as the predictor variables in the regression analyses. Results indicated that the narcissistic and impulsive personality disorder components fully account for the relationship between the impulsive and the negative affectivity temperament variables with problem gambling severity in the student sample. Thus, the personality disorder dimensions accounted for unique incremental variance above and beyond that accounted for by the temperament variables. In the referred sample, the asocial personality disorder Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Psychological Mechanisms related to problem gambling iv component was the only meaningful predictor o f problem gambling severity based on the results o f a backward entry regression analysis. Gender was identified as a predictor of problem gambling severity in the student sample and as a mediator o f both impulsivity’s and positive affectivity’s relations with problem gambling severity in the referred sample. The inclusion o f gender as a covariate did not alter the significance o f the personality disorder effects. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Psychological Mechanisms related to problem gambling DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this project to my partner Sean, I am not sure I could have gotten this far without you. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Psychological Mechanisms related to problem gambling vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to many people who supported me through this endeavour: to my advisor Stephen Hibbard, for continuing to believe in me; to my committee members: Kenneth Hart for helping me simplify this project, as well as Robert Arnold and Dennis Jackson for their help with statistical analyses and to Sean Kidd my good buddy and fiance. I would also like to thank Eleanor and Ryan Kidd, my future parent-in-laws. To Eleanor for proof reading draft after draft and to Ryan for not mentioning the “D” word whenever I came to visit. Thanks to the departmental secretaries for all of their help and support. I am also grateful to my family for their cheerleading and to my good friends (in Toronto, Windsor, Syracuse and abroad) for their patience and continued friendship. Special thanks to Danielle Lee who is the best possible friend a grad student could ask for and to Niki Fitzgerald for her continued encouragement and musical interludes -possibly the only thing that could keep me going after a long day’s work! I am sure that my data collection would have taken twice as long if it weren’t for Kristen Stevens and her help with the student sample data collection, she was so efficient! Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the efforts o f the impulsivity research group with the referred sample data collection i t really was a team effort! Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Psychological Mechanisms related to problem gambling vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv DEDICATION v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xiv