The Comorbidity of Gambling Disorder among Macao Adult Residents and the Moderating Role of Resilience and Life Purpose

Juliet Honglei Chen, Kwok Kit Tong, Anise M. S. Wu, Joseph T. F. Lau and Meng Xuan Zhang
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Juliet Honglei Chen: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao, China
Kwok Kit Tong: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao, China
Anise M. S. Wu: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao, China
Joseph T. F. Lau: The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Meng Xuan Zhang: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Macao, China’s only city with legalized casinos, has maintained a high prevalence of gambling participation and gambling disorder (GD) over the past decade. The mental health risks associated with such high levels have been overlooked. In order to estimate the comorbid prevalence of GD with depression, anxiety, and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and to explore the potential buffering effect of psychological resilience and purpose in life, this study obtained a representative adult Chinese sample ( N = 1000, 44% male, aged 18–97 years) from a telephone survey conducted between October and November of 2016. As hypothesized, the highest psychiatric comorbid prevalence was observed in the GD subgroup ( n = 19, 21.1% probable IGD, 26.3% probable depression, and 37.0% probable anxiety). All these mental health problems could increase one’s proclivity to GD, and vice versa. Psychological resilience was found to buffer the association between anxiety symptoms and probable GD (χ 2 (1) = 4.30, p = 0.04/GD symptoms, F change (1,162) = 6.29, p = 0.01), whereas purpose in life did not display any hypothesized moderating effect. These results indicate the usefulness of mental health screening for GD, taking into consideration its associated risks, and of fostering psychological resilience in prevention and treatment programs.

Keywords: gambling disorder; Internet gaming disorder; depression; anxiety; comorbidity; prevalence; psychological resilience; purpose in life; Chinese; adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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