Prevalence of gambling, depressive symptoms and cognitive distortions in university students

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to analyze the presence of depressive symptoms and cognitive distortions in a sample of undergraduate students and investigate the possible relationship with severity of gambling disorders. To this aim, a sample of 277 local students (66.8 % women) between 18 and 35 years completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), a Gambling Prevalence Questionnaire, the Gambling Belief Questionnaire Spanish Version (GBQ-S) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). No differences in depression symptoms were found depending on gambling frequency and SOGS´s scores. The presence of cognitive distortions in less severe forms of gambling disorders was corroborated. Cognitive distortions’ levels increased with increasing severity and frequency of gambling.

Keywords

• Gambling Disorders
• Cognitive Distortions
• Depressive Symptoms
• Gambling Frequency