Abstract
A quantitative observational study was undertaken to examine the relationship between individual factors and level of gambling involvement, in particular problem gambling (PG). The specific factors under study were personality, perceived luck, and attitudes towards gambling. A sample of university students (N = 185) completed a battery of questionnaires, consisting of the 16PF, Canadian Problem Gambling Index, Belief in Good Luck Scale (BIGL), Gambling Attitudes Scale (GAS), and the Impulsive Non-Conformity subscale (ImpNon) from the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences. Four groups were formed (Non-PG, Low-Risk, Moderate-Risk, and PG). Personality profiles varied between groups, and there were significant main effects and interaction effects on gender and personality factors. The PG group was higher on impulsivity, and belief in luck, and had more positive attitudes towards gambling. Multiple Regression Analysis and Discriminant Functions Analysis, using variables including some 16PF factors, BIGL and GAS variables, produced models that were highly predictive of gambling severity and gambling membership. In both models, impulsivity was the strongest predictor. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for future research and treatment of PG.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table A1.
Appendix 2
Procedure for the Discriminant Functions Analysis
The following criteria were adopted in order to reduce the large pool of independent variables under consideration. First, for highly correlated variables (r ≥ 0.50), only one of the pair would be included in the DA, which also serves to eliminate the multicollinearity problem (note that Cohen 1988, gives the following guidelines for determining the strength of r: small, r = 0.1; medium, r = 0.3; large, r = 0.5). Second, the significantly-correlated variable in a pair with a non-significant F-ratio would be excluded, or if the F-ratio was significant, the correlating variable with the weakest F-ratio of the two would be excluded (F-ratios are those listed for the ANOVA results in Table 4).
Several 16PF primary factors were highly correlated with each other (e.g. Tension was highly correlated with Apprehension, r = 0.56, p < 0.001). The GAS subscales were also highly correlated with each other, so only GAS-general was included in the DA as the largest differences between the gambling groups were found for this GAS subscale. Gender was also included since significant gambling group differences were found (see Table 3).
Sixteen short-listed variables were considered: gender, BIGL, ImpNon, GAS-general, eleven 16PF factors (i.e. Warmth, Reasoning, Emotional Stability, Dominance, Rule-Consciousness, Social Boldness, Sensitivity, Vigilance, Openness to Change, Perfectionism, and Tension), and Impression Management (IM). From the above 16 variables, the seven with the weakest F-ratios were excluded from the analysis, resulting in nine variables: gender, ImpNon, BIGL, GAS-general, and five 16PF primary factors (i.e. Emotional Stability, Dominance, Perfectionism, Tension, and Reasoning).
A baseline (within-groups) discriminant analysis was run and the accuracy rate was 78.4%. Box’s M test was significant, F(56,33755.68) = 4.61, p < 0.001, so we concluded that the groups do differ in their covariance matrices, violating an assumption of DA. The DA was re-run using separate-group covariance matrices for classification, but it was considered necessary to check for outliers by examining the Squared Mahalanobis Distance from the centroid. The critical value was 21.67, and there were five cases with a Mahalanobis D2 > 21.67. These five were regarded as outliers, and were omitted, resulting in 33 cases in the Non-PG group, 43 in the Low-Risk group, 89 in the Moderate-Risk group, and 15 in the PG group: 180 cases in all.
The accuracy rate increased by more than 2% after the removal of outliers, but the Box’s M test was still significant, F(90,29905.71) = 4.60, p < 0.001. It is noted, however, that the DA is a robust procedure and the tolerances for all the IVs were above 0.10, indicating no problem of multicollinearity, which undermines the Box’s M test result.
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Chiu, J., Storm, L. Personality, Perceived Luck and Gambling Attitudes as Predictors of Gambling Involvement. J Gambl Stud 26, 205–227 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-009-9160-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-009-9160-x