Gambling, Family Dysfunction and Psychological Disorders: A Cross- Sectional Study

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Gambling, Family Dysfunction and Psychological Disorders: A Cross‑ Sectional Study Marie Aime Uwiduhaye1 · Japhet Niyonsenga1   · Assumpta Muhayisa1 · Jean Mutabaruka1 Accepted: 30 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract The present study aimed to identify predictors and effects of problem gambling and examine the moderating role of family dysfunction between problem gambling and its effects. A sample of 104 gamblers (all were men, Mean = 26.2, SD = 6.8), was recruited from gambling venues in an urban area of Musanze district, Northern Province of Rwanda. Participants were aged above the legal age of 16 years. Data were collected using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the Brief Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Brief MAST), Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10), the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Family Dysfunction Test. SPSS (version22) was used to carry out all statistical analyses. Results showed that personality traits predicted problem gambling. Additionally, problem gambling was associated with alcohol use, drug abuse, sleep deprivation, antisocial tendency and family dysfunction. Family dysfunction moderated the effects of problem gambling on drug abuse, alcohol use and sleep deprivation. Gambling is a complex but assessable phenomenon and future studies may explore further its correlates. Keywords  Gambling · Personality traits · Anti-social tendency · Family dysfunction · Alcohol and drug abuse

Introduction Gambling is an alarming public health issue that can ruin many aspects of a person’s life even if it has become a socially accepted form of recreation worldwide. Researchers have found that consequences of gambling are similar to those associated with alcoholism or any other substance use (American psychiatric association [APA] 2018; Ciarrocchi and Hohmann 1989). Research findings estimated that 0.1–5.8% of the general population meet the diagnostic criteria for problem gambling worldwide and that the lifetime prevalence of problem gambling is 0.7–6.5% among the general population (Calado and Griffiths 2016). Problem gambling is associated with a range of negative consequences for the gamblers, * Japhet Niyonsenga [email protected] 1



Clinical Psychology Department, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda

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Journal of Gambling Studies

with research finding that 58% of problem gamblers also experienced negative consequences associated with their gambling (Potenza et al 2002). These statistics are estimates of worldwide problem gambling rates and harms, while for this study, being carried out in Rwanda, there is little published research on gambling and problem gambling. A recent survey that examined gambling-related activities in 3,879 youth aged from 17 to 35 years in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania found that 54% of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa engaged in some forms of gambling activity (GeoPoll 2017