Annual Research Review: Emergence of problem gambling from childhood to emerging adulthood: a systematic review.

Background: The risk for problematic gambling and associated high-risk behaviors is elevated during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Activities with gambling-like features and novel forms of gambling may place youth at an increased risk for problem gambling.

Aim And Method: The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the association between both activities with gambling-like features and novel gambling activities and problem gambling among youth while examining the role of psychopathology and cognitive processes.

Where Do Gambling Problems Fit in the Structure of Psychopathology During Emerging Adulthood?

Research suggests major mental disorders co-occur at higher than chance levels. In adult samples, a two factor structure emerges when modeling the higher order structure of psychopathology. Specifically, disorders tend to co-aggregate into two dimensions: Internalizing (depression and anxiety) and Externalizing (acting out, impulsive, and addictive) disorders.

Gambling and Alcohol Problems during the College Years: Personality, Physical and Emotional Health and Gambling Beliefs.

Gambling and alcohol problems commonly co-occur during emerging adulthood. Co-occurring problems may relates to personality factors, physical health, mental health and gambling belief systems. In a large sample of colleges students ( = 513), we examined alcohol, gambling and co-occurring problem groups relative to a group without alcohol or gambling problems from large sample of college students.

Genetic and environmental origins of gambling behaviors from ages 18 to 25: A longitudinal twin family study.

Gambling behaviors tend to increase in prevalence from late adolescence to young adulthood, and the underlying genetic and environmental influences during this period remain largely understudied. We examined the genetic and environmental influences on gambling behaviors contributing to stability and change from ages 18 to 25 in a longitudinal, behavioral genetic mixed-sex twin study design. Participants were enrolled in the Minnesota Twin Family Study.

Work and non-pathological gambling.

Most economists believe that people would value an additional $1,000 in income more if they were poor than if rich, but if so, people should not gamble according to standard expected utility theory. Thus, economists have been challenged to explain the pervasiveness of gambling in human behavior. A recently proposed solution to this theoretical challenge (Nyman 2004; Nyman et al.

Personality, gender, and family history in the prediction of college gambling.

The present study examined the degree to which gambling behaviors and gambling-relevant cognitive distortions could be predicted by personality factors, gender, and familial history of substance use and gambling problems in a large sample of college students (N = 581). Results indicate that parental gambling problems and, especially for males, a propensity to experience negative emotions predicted time spent gambling and gambling problems. Negative emotionality, along with parental substance use problems, impulsivity, and being male predicted gambling-related cognitive distortions.

Parental alcohol dependence and the transmission of adolescent behavioral disinhibition: a study of adoptive and non-adoptive families.

Aim: To examine the genetic and environmental influences of parental alcoholism on offspring disinhibited behavior.

Design: We compared the effect of parental alcoholism history on offspring in adoptive and non-adoptive families. In families with a history of parental alcohol dependence, we examined the effect of exposure to parental alcoholism symptoms during the life-time of the adolescent.

Personality traits and the development of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders: prospective links from adolescence to young adulthood.

The personality traits constraint (CN) and negative emotionality (NE) have been more (CN) or less (NE) consistently associated with alcoholism. The authors examined the association of personality at age 17 with timing of onset and with prospective prediction of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders 3 years later in a twin sample (569 females; 432 males). Earlier onset of alcohol and drug disorders (by age 17) was related to significantly lower CN compared with later onsets (by age 20); high NE was related to either onset.

Etiological contributions to heavy drinking from late adolescence to young adulthood.

The authors examined genetic and environmental contributions to stability and change in heavy drinking from late adolescence to young adulthood in a sample of 1,152 twin pairs. In men, heavy drinking was similarly heritable at ages 17 (h2=.57) and 20 (h2=.

Childhood externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in the prediction of early substance use.

Aims: To examine the prospective relationships between childhood externalizing and internalizing disorders and substance use in early adolescence.

Design: Longitudinal, community-based study of twins (aged 11 at intake; aged 14 at follow-up).

Setting And Participants: The sample was composed of twins participating in the Minnesota Twin Family Study, an epidemiological sample of twins and their families representative of the state population of Minnesota.