Abstract
This cross-sectional study was aimed at investigating the role of emotional regulation in regular gambling in a sample of 197 disordered and non-problem gamblers from Ecuador. Two proxies were used as measures of behavioral signs of generalized emotion dysregulation (UPPS-P emotion-driven impulsivity) and intentional emotion regulation strategies (ERQ), and their associations with gambling cognitions (as measured by the GRCS questionnaire), gambling behavior (SOGS), and comorbid alcohol and drug misuse (MultiCAGE), were explored. For analyses, impulsivity traits, including emotion-driven impulsivity scores, were used as inputs to predict dispositional variables (ERQ strategies and GRCS cognitions), and clinically relevant behavioral outputs, while controlling for gambling severity. Hypotheses were based on previously published work, although the analysis has been improved (using hierarchical linear mixed-effects modelling), and homogenized in covariate control, and decision threshold stringency. Results were as follows: (1) After controlling for relevant covariates, UPPS-P sensation seeking was positively associated with gambling cognitions, whereas positive urgency was positively associated with cognitive biases (interpretative bias, control illusion, and predictive control) but not with other gambling cognitions. (2) Among emotion regulation strategies, reappraisal, but not suppression, was associated with gambling cognitions. (3) Negative urgency was distinctively associated with suppression, but not with reappraisal. And (4), no impulsivity dimensions significantly predicted drug or alcohol misuse, although negative urgency fell just below the decision threshold. These results reinforce the importance of emotion regulation processes in the cognitive and behavioral manifestations of gambling. Most importantly, they suggest a dissociation between the role of model-free dysregulation of negative emotions (as measured by UPPS-P negative urgency), as a key contributor to gambling complication and general psychopathology; and the one of strategic emotion regulation, in fueling gambling-related cognitive distortions.
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Funding
MFJR is funded by the scholarship program offered by the University of Guayaquil – Ecuador, 2015 (Consejo de Educación Superior – CES). JCP and JFN are supported by a grant from the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación; Convocatoria 2017 de Proyectos I + D de Excelencia, Spain; co-funded by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER, European Union), with reference number PSI2017-85488-P. JFN has been awarded with an individual research grant (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Programa FPU, reference number FPU13/00669).
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The procedure of this study complies with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008, and was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Guayaquil (Ecuador), as part of the doctoral thesis project of the first author, and by the Human Research Institutional Review Board of the University of Granada, as part of the GBrain 2 Project (Reference: PSI2017-85488-P, IRB approval number 406/CEIH/2017).
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Jara-Rizzo, M.F., Navas, J.F., Catena, A. et al. Types of Emotion Regulation and Their Associations with Gambling: A Cross-Sectional Study with Disordered and Non-problem Ecuadorian Gamblers. J Gambl Stud 35, 997–1013 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09868-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09868-7