Spring, Andrew (2011) Pathological Gambling: The Role of Mindfulness and Coping Skills. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The current research was concerned with the increasing clinical challenge of problematic gambling. The purpose was to assess the coping component of Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) model of stress and coping, along with a measure of mindfulness in the prediction of problem gambling behaviour. Specifically, a convenience sampling technique was employed in order to recruit 64 treatment-seeking problematic gamblers (including 34 males and 30 females) from Lifeline, Toowoomba. The mean age of the participants was 64 years (M = 39.20, SD = 12.01). The average yearly income was $42, 626 (Range - $10,000 to $77,000; SD = $16781), while participants spent an average of 166.83 per week on gambling activities (Range - $30 to $500; SD = $111). The participants completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), and a demographic data sheet. The standard multiple regression results revealed that several subscales of the WCQ including the Seeking Social Support (β = -51.68, p < .001) and the EscapeAvoidance subscales (β = -15.78, p < .001) made a significant contribution to the regression equation when predicting gambling severity. The MAAS also contributed significantly to the equation (β = -.44, p = .028). However, the subscales identified by previous research as reliable predictors of problematic gambling (Farrelly et al., 2007; Nyamathi et al., 2000) including the Confrontive Coping subscale of the WCQ and the Distancing subscale did not contribute significantly to the equation. Moreover, as expected, both variables correlated significantly with the SOGS score. The results suggest that enhancing mindfulness may assist problematic gamblers to reduce their gambling behaviour and further attests to the general usefulness of this factor when (iii) treating a wide variety of behavioural disorders (Brown & Ryan, 2003). The results also suggest that the use of emotion-focused coping strategies may contribute to the severity of problematic gambling. It is suggested that the development of treatment protocols involving mindfulness training may be clinically beneficial to the problematic gambling population. Similarly, it is also suggested that treatment strategies should aim to identify and alter coping strategies which are associated with poor behavioural outcomes. Future research should also consider the appraisal component of Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) transtheoretical model as a potential mediator of problematic gambling.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | David Lalor |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2025 01:26 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2025 01:26 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52775 |
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