Gaming and gambling in adolescence: the role of personality, reflective functioning, time perspective and dissociation

ABSTRACT The 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) formally recognized gaming disorder as an addictive health disorder like gambling disorder. The ICD-11 assumes that excessive online gaming can lead to functional/clinical impairments and psychological distress among a minority of individuals. The present study investigated similarities and commonalities between internet gaming disorder (IGD) and gambling disorder among adolescents (N = 366 students, 13–19 years). Participants completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA), the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form (PID-5-BF), the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8), the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFC-14), and the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES). Regression analyses showed that the significant predictors of (i) gambling severity were being male, high scores on the PID-5-BF Disinhibition and Antagonism domains, and low scores on RFQ-Certainty and CFC-Future subscales, and (ii) gaming severity were being male, high scores on the PID-5-BF Detachment scale and the A-DES, and low scores on the RFQ-Certainty. Risk factors shared by both disorders were male gender and impaired mentalization. Specific interventions on mentalization abilities may be useful in reducing and preventing problematic involvement in both gaming and gambling among adolescents.