Drives, Pathological Family Functioning and Gambling

Gambling is a considered method to relieve stress and emotional difficulties. But recently gambling has rose from its infancy to a state where youngsters find the situation more challenging. Placing bets, chasing loses, winning money are mostly identified the interest of the game. While this goes on, the consequences are still ignored. India with larger youths, have at least tried the act of gambling once in their life due to several reasons as: feeling good, to release anxiety and pain, for fun, to make friends and to be rich. This study aims to evaluate gambling motivation and pathological family functioning as associated with gambling and how they predict gambling in young adults. Sixty participants of the age group 18 to 26 (who previously had engaged in gambling for considerable number of times i.e., 5-8 times or more than 10 times in a year) were chosen for this study. Majority of the participants were college going students and few working young adults. The Gambling Motivation Scale (GMS), the General Family Functioning Subscale of Family Assessment Device, the NORC Diagnostic Screen for Gambling Problems were used for this this study to determine the gambling motivation, family pathology and gambling symptoms in these participants. The correlational results produced a significant relationship between gambling and gambling motivation, and between gambling and pathological family functioning suggesting their crucial role in gambling. Moreover, regression analysis results indicated gambling motivation and pathological family functioning as predictors of gambling. This study has greater implications as two different variables were closely identified as related to gambling.