Cognitive distortions of off-line and mixed gamblers and gamers
Distorsions cognitives des joueurs de jeux de hasard et d'argent hors ligne et mixtes.
Résumé
Aim: The aim of this study is to compare and trace profiles of individuals who go to casinos, hippodromes, etc. to gamble (offline gamblers) and those who in addition to it, gamble online (mixed gamblers). Method; A total of 608 players responded to a battery of questionnaire. It consisted of; 1) sociodemographic data (gender, age, family situation, education); 2) measures of gambling; 3) alcohol consumption; 4) measures of anxiety end depression and 5) socio-cognitive measures (cognitive distortions and self-confidence). Results: We notice that our population in majority, consists of women (39% men, 60% women) with a mean age of 53 [Agemin: 17 years, Agemax: 76 years, S.D.: 15.97); 55% were married or living together. Only 23.7% (N = 144) of subjects are in/off gamblers. With respect to consumption of alcohol, 31.5% (N = 191) have problems with alcohol; 19.6% (N = 109) are at moderate risk of pathological gambling and 9% N = 55) are pathological gamblers. Mixed gamblers are significantly younger, play more, have higher scores on problematic gambling, are more anxious and have higher levels of alcohol consumption. They also have significantly higher scores on cognitive distortions (particularly on the dimension of predictive control) but on the other hand, have lower levels of confidence with respect to their capacity to stop gambling as compared to offline gamblers. Conclusion: Mixed gamblers are characterized by higher intensity with respect to pathological gambling end cognitive biases. Therefore, special attention should be paid to this fragile population. Some interventional and preventive approaches are proposed in the conclusion section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (journal abstract)