Adverse Childhood Experiences and Problematic Gambling Among Young Adults: Three Moderated Mediation

Gambling is a significant, current public health issue among young adults. Literature suggests that adverse childhood experiences may be associated with it. Moreover, emotion regulation and self-control may play a role in this relationship. Sensation seeking and a family gambling history may also moderate the relationships. We aimed to explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gambling among adolescents. We used PROCESS Model 6 to examine difficulties in emotion regulation and self-control as mediators and applied Model 89 to analyze moderated mediation involving sensation seeking and family gambling history. The study sample consisted of 579 young adults (67.5% man) aged 18–29 years (M = 21.08 years; SD = 1.93 years). We found a significant positive relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gambling. Mediation of difficulties in both emotion regulation and self-control was also significant. Sensation seeking and family gambling history conditioned the mediation by strengthening pathways to problematic gambling. Findings indicate that problematic gambling has strong connections with multidimensional psychosocial patterns and highlight the importance of considering individual and familial differences.