Background and aims: Previous researches found that both the bodily signals themselves and gamblers’ abilities to detect these signals could affect gambling behavior. Nevertheless, very few studies directly explored how interoception influences gambling behavior, and they focused on interoceptive accuracy or sensibility in people with high level of gambling disorder. Alexithymia is also associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention in young adults and the prevalence of gambling problem. This is the first study exploring whether multidemensional interoception and alexithymia were related to gambling severity and related decision-making ability (measured by the Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) , and how they interacted with each other via mediating analysis. Methods: 119 participants recruited from online social media completed three questionnaires, including the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2) , and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the computerized IGT. Results: As the severity of gambling increased, three dimensions of interoception (not-distracting, attention regulation and self-regulation) and all the dimensions of alexithymia showed significant differences. Although there was no significant difference in IGT NET score, it was negatively correlated with externally-oriented thinking. Gambling severity was influenced by two dimensions of interoception, not-distracting and not-worrying. The former relationship was mediated by general alexithymia, difficulty identifying feelings, and externally-oriented thinking, while the latter relationship was mediated by difficulty identifying feelings. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings indicated gambling would seem to be a coping mechanism to help individuals distract attention from internal pain or discomfort that they are unable or do not want to convey verbally, and calm worry and suffering. Moreover, the present results highlight important implications for clinical practice, e.g. interoception-alexithymia based interventions in gambling addiction, and other addictive disorders with similar underlying cognitive process, such as gaming addition.
Background and aims: Previous researches found that both the bodily signals themselves and gamblers’ abilities to detect these signals could affect gambling behavior. Nevertheless, very few studies directly explored how interoception influences gambling behavior, and they focused on interoceptive accuracy or sensibility in people with high level of gambling disorder. Alexithymia is also associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention in young adults and the prevalence of gambling problem. This is the first study exploring whether multidemensional interoception and alexithymia were related to gambling severity and related decision-making ability (measured by the Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) , and how they interacted with each other via mediating analysis. Methods: 119 participants recruited from online social media completed three questionnaires, including the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2) , and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the computerized IGT. Results: As the severity of gambling increased, three dimensions of interoception (not-distracting, attention regulation and self-regulation) and all the dimensions of alexithymia showed significant differences. Although there was no significant difference in IGT NET score, it was negatively correlated with externally-oriented thinking. Gambling severity was influenced by two dimensions of interoception, not-distracting and not-worrying. The former relationship was mediated by general alexithymia, difficulty identifying feelings, and externally-oriented thinking, while the latter relationship was mediated by difficulty identifying feelings. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings indicated gambling would seem to be a coping mechanism to help individuals distract attention from internal pain or discomfort that they are unable or do not want to convey verbally, and calm worry and suffering. Moreover, the present results highlight important implications for clinical practice, e.g. interoception-alexithymia based interventions in gambling addiction, and other addictive disorders with similar underlying cognitive process, such as gaming addition.
The role of interoception and alexithymia in gambling
WANG, NANA
2021/2022
Abstract
Background and aims: Previous researches found that both the bodily signals themselves and gamblers’ abilities to detect these signals could affect gambling behavior. Nevertheless, very few studies directly explored how interoception influences gambling behavior, and they focused on interoceptive accuracy or sensibility in people with high level of gambling disorder. Alexithymia is also associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention in young adults and the prevalence of gambling problem. This is the first study exploring whether multidemensional interoception and alexithymia were related to gambling severity and related decision-making ability (measured by the Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) , and how they interacted with each other via mediating analysis. Methods: 119 participants recruited from online social media completed three questionnaires, including the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2) , and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the computerized IGT. Results: As the severity of gambling increased, three dimensions of interoception (not-distracting, attention regulation and self-regulation) and all the dimensions of alexithymia showed significant differences. Although there was no significant difference in IGT NET score, it was negatively correlated with externally-oriented thinking. Gambling severity was influenced by two dimensions of interoception, not-distracting and not-worrying. The former relationship was mediated by general alexithymia, difficulty identifying feelings, and externally-oriented thinking, while the latter relationship was mediated by difficulty identifying feelings. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings indicated gambling would seem to be a coping mechanism to help individuals distract attention from internal pain or discomfort that they are unable or do not want to convey verbally, and calm worry and suffering. Moreover, the present results highlight important implications for clinical practice, e.g. interoception-alexithymia based interventions in gambling addiction, and other addictive disorders with similar underlying cognitive process, such as gaming addition.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/1914