The Severity of gambling and gambling related cognitions as predictors of emotional regulation and coping strategies in adolescents

Altres ajuts: We thank CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. Funded by Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (2017/I067)and co-funded by FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), a way to build Europe. CIBERObn and CIBERSAM are both initiatives of ISCIII. We also thank the Spanish Organisation of Blind People (ONCE) for being awarded their III International Research Grant. HLG was supported by the Beatriu de Pinos programme of the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia (Grant No. 2017 BP 00035). People with gambling disorder (GD) exhibit distorted cognitions and superstitious beliefs more often than the general population. Similarly, difficulties in coping and emotion dysregulation are more prevalent among those with GD, and could determine the onset of GD in particularly vulnerable groups such as adolescents. This study examines the relationship between gambling severity and gambling-related cognitions with coping strategies and emotion regulation. Also, it explores how accurately gambling severity and gambling-related cognitions were able to predict emotion regulation and coping strategies. Two groups were recruited and analyzed: a community sample comprising 250 adolescents and young adults from secondary education schools, and a clinical sample of 31 patients with similar age characteristics seeking treatment for GD. The participants from the clinical sample scored higher on gambling severity, emotion dysregulation, cognitive biases, and maladaptive coping strategies. In the community sample, cognitive biases mediated the relationship between sex and emotion dysregulation and disengagement. People with GD use more often than controls maladaptive emotion regulation strategies to manage negative emotional states. This perspective emphasizes the need to focus on coping with emotions, as opposed to coping with problems, as the best approach to tackle gambling problems.