The Impact of Social Desirability Biases on Self-Report Among College Student and Problem Gamblers

The impacts of two types of social desirability bias, self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM), were examined on self-reports of gambling problems , measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and recent gambling behavior , as measured by the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method, in a sample of college students ( N = 191), and a sample of treatment-seeking problem gamblers ( N = 49). Consistent with our expectations, IM was negatively associated with SOGS scores in both samples. IM was most highly correlated with SOGS scores among treatment-seeking participants ( r = −.44, p