Typologies of young pathological gamblers based on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore empirical clusters within the population of young Spanish individuals attending outpatient pathological gambling treatment.

Method

The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), the Temperament and Character Inventory-R (TCI-R) and other clinical and psychopathological measures were administered to 154 patients (between 17 and 25years old). The two-step cluster analysis explored the presence of empirical heterogeneous groups based on clinical and socio-demographic characteristics.

Results

Three clusters of young pathological gambling patients emerged. Type I showed less psychopathology and more functional personality traits. Type II showed a profile characterized by major emotional distress, shame, immaturity, hostility and negative feelings. Type III showed the most severe psychopathological profile and most psychopathological disturbances and schizotypal traits.

Conclusions

These results suggest that three distinct endophenotypes exist, and that environmental factors have a stronger influence in the first, while in the second and third, individual factors related to deficits of emotional regulation stand out.