1 School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University , Bundaberg, QLD, Australia.
2 School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University , Sydney, NSW, Australia.
J Behav Addict. 2017 Sep 1;6(3):416-424. doi: 10.1556/2006.6.2017.056. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Background and aims Few studies have examined the stigma of problem gambling and little is known about those who internalize this prejudice as damaging self-stigma. This paper aimed to identify psychological factors, sociodemographic characteristics, and coping mechanisms associated with the self-stigma of problem gambling. Methods An online survey was conducted on 177 Australian adults with a current gambling problem to measure self-stigma, self-esteem, social anxiety, self-consciousness, psychological distress, symptom severity, most problematic gambling form, stigma coping mechanisms, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results All variables significantly correlated with self-stigma were considered for inclusion in a regression model. A multivariate linear regression indicated that higher levels of self-stigma were associated with: being female, being older, lower self-esteem, higher problem gambling severity score, and greater use of secrecy (standardized coefficients: 0.16, 0.14, -0.33, 0.23, and 0.15, respectively). Strongest predictors in the model were self-esteem, followed by symptom severity score. Together, predictors in the model accounted for 38.9% of the variance in self-stigma. Discussion and conclusions These results suggest that the self-stigma of problem gambling may be driven by similar mechanisms as the self-stigma of other mental health disorders, and impact similarly on self-esteem and coping. Thus, self-stigma reduction initiatives used for other mental health conditions may be effective for problem gambling. In contrast, however, the self-stigma of problem gambling increased with female gender and older age, which are associated with gaming machine problems. This group should, therefore, be a target population for efforts to reduce or better cope with the self-stigma of problem gambling.
鲜有研究检验赌博问题污名，鲜有人了解将这种偏见内化于心从而产生自我污名的人。本文旨在确定与赌博问题自我污名相关的心理因素、人口统计学特征和应对机制。
本研究对 177 名澳大利亚有当前赌博问题的成年人进行了一项在线调查，以衡量自我污名、自尊、社交焦虑、自我意识、心理困扰、症状严重程度、最严重的赌博形式、污名应对机制和人口统计学特征。
所有与自我污名显著相关的变量都被纳入回归模型。多元线性回归表明，自我污名程度较高与以下因素相关：女性、年龄较大、自尊较低、赌博问题严重程度得分较高、保密性较高（标准化系数分别为 0.16、0.14、-0.33、0.23 和 0.15）。模型中最强的预测因子是自尊，其次是症状严重程度得分。模型中的预测因子共解释了自我污名 38.9%的方差。
这些结果表明，赌博问题的自我污名可能由与其他心理健康障碍的自我污名相似的机制驱动，对自尊和应对方式产生类似的影响。因此，用于其他心理健康状况的自我污名减少措施可能对赌博问题有效。然而，与自我污名相反，赌博问题的自我污名随女性性别和年龄增长而增加，这与游戏机问题有关。因此，该群体应成为减少或更好应对赌博问题自我污名的目标人群。
