Mood, motives, and money: An examination of factors that differentiate online and non-online young adult gamblers.

Background and aims To date, there is a lack of research on psychological factors associated with young adult online gambling. The current study examined differences between young adult online and non-online gamblers, using information gathered at baseline and over 30 days during which participants reported on their moods, gambling behaviors, and reasons for initiating and discontinuing gambling. Methods Participants were 108 young adult regular gamblers (i.e., gambling four or more times in the past month) who participated in a 30-day daily diary study. Results Male gender, baseline coping motives for gambling and negative affect averaged across the 30 days emerged as significant correlates of online gambling, over and above other background variables. Online gamblers also scored higher on a baseline measure of pathological gambling. Over the 30 days of self-monitoring, online gamblers spent more time gambling, and won more money gambling, whereas non-online gamblers consumed more alcohol while gambling. Online gambling was more often initiated to make money, because of boredom and to demonstrate skills, whereas non-online gambling was more often initiated for social reasons and for excitement. Online gambling was more often discontinued because of boredom, fatigue or distress, whereas non-online gambling was discontinued because friends stopped gambling or mood was improved. Discussion and conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence that coping strategies may be particularly important to reduce risks for online gamblers, whereas strategies for non-online gamblers should focus on the social aspects of gambling.

Cognitive function is associated with prison behaviour among women in prison but not with subjective perception of adjustment to prison.

BACKGROUND: There is considerable evidence that aspects of cognitive function, especially executive function, are associated with antisocial behaviour and violence, but most research to date has measured current cognition and previous criminal behaviour. Furthermore, this research has been conducted almost exclusively with male offenders. AIM: The aim of this study is to examine relationships between a wide range of cognitive functions and behaviours among women in prison. Our hypotheses were that cognitive functioning would be associated with both more-or-less contemporaneously observed behaviour problems and self-rated adjustment to the environment. METHOD: Forty-five drug-free imprisoned female offenders were individually assessed on a battery of cognitive measures. Prison staff rated their behaviour on the Prison Behaviour Rating Scale and the women rated their own sense of adjustment to the environment on the Prison Adjustment Questionnaire. RESULTS: Stepwise hierarchical regressions indicated that attention was independently associated with behaviours reflecting tension, depression, isolation, fear, victimisation and worry, whereas processing speed was independently associated with behaviours reflecting lack of energy, mental slowness and lack of awareness of the surrounding environment and total Prison Adjustment Questionnaire score. There was no relationship between cognitive functioning and subjective perception of adjustment to prison. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND FUTURE RESEARCH: Results indicate that cognition contributes to some of the behavioural problems displayed by inmates in the prison context. Future studies should evaluate the role of programmes to improve cognitive processes in also improving prison behaviour and also test for continuities and discontinuities with post-release integrative success.

Mood, motives, and gambling in young adults: an examination of within- and between-person variations using experience sampling.

It is well established that young adults are a population at risk for problem gambling and that young adults gamble for various reasons, including positive mood enhancement and negative mood reduction. Although these motives have been identified as important proximal predictors of gambling, the research to date has focused on between-subjects relationships. What is missing is a process-level understanding of the specific within-subjects relations between mood-regulation motives for gambling, mood states, and gambling behaviors. The current study used experience sampling to assess the specific link between gambling motives, mood states, and gambling behavior. Participants were 108 young adults (ages 19-24 years), who completed baseline measures of gambling motives and gambling problems and then reported on their mood states and gambling behavior three times a day for 30 days. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed a significant positive moderating effect for enhancement motives on the relationship between positive mood and amount of time spent gambling and number of drinks consumed while gambling. In addition, problem gambling status was associated with consuming fewer drinks while gambling at higher levels of positive mood, and spending more money than intended at higher levels of negative mood. Unexpectedly, there was only one moderating effect for coping motives on the mood-gambling relationship; low coping motivated gamblers consumed more alcohol while gambling at higher levels of positive mood, whereas high coping motivated gamblers did not change their drinking in response to positive mood. The current findings highlight enhancement motives as risky motives for young adult gambling, particularly in the context of positive mood, and suggest that gambling interventions should include strategies to address positive mood management.

Role of executive dysfunction in predicting frequency and severity of violence.

The adverse consequences of violence on society are tremendous. The proportion of offenders incarcerated for violent offenses is large, and the cost of keeping these offenders incarcerated is startling. Understanding and treating the causal underpinnings of violent crime is of utmost importance for individuals and society as a whole. Several factors have been identified as potential contributors to violent crime, including cognitive deficits in executive functioning [Hoaken et al., 2007]. To investigate this further, 77 offenders from Fenbrook Institution, a federal facility, were tested on a battery of executive functioning measures. Offenders were found to have broad and pervasive dysfunction in their executive abilities. In addition, specific scores from the battery were found using regression techniques, to predict the frequency and severity of past violent offending but not nonviolent offending. This speaks of the possibility of a new type of correctional rehabilitation program, one that focuses on the rehabilitation of basic executive functions.

Executive cognitive functioning and the recognition of facial expressions of emotion in incarcerated violent offenders, non-violent offenders, and controls.

Violence is a social problem that carries enormous costs; however, our understanding of its etiology is quite limited. A large body of research exists, which suggests a relationship between abnormalities of the frontal lobe and aggression; as a result, many researchers have implicated deficits in so-called "executive function" as an antecedent to aggressive behaviour. Another possibility is that violence may be related to problems interpreting facial expressions of emotion, a deficit associated with many forms of psychopathology, and an ability linked to the prefrontal cortex. The current study investigated performance on measures of executive function and on a facial-affect recognition task in 20 violent offenders, 20 non-violent offenders, and 20 controls. In support of our hypotheses, both offender groups performed significantly more poorly on measures of executive function relative to controls. In addition, violent offenders were significantly poorer on the facial-affect recognition task than either of the other two groups. Interestingly, scores on these measures were significantly correlated, with executive deficits associated with difficulties accurately interpreting facial affect. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of a broader understanding of violent behaviour.

Cognition, emotion, and neurobiological development: mediating the relation between maltreatment and aggression.

Child maltreatment has been consistently linked to aggression, yet there have been few attempts to conceptualize precisely how maltreatment influences the development of aggression. This review proposes that biases in cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological development mediate the relation between childhood maltreatment and the development of aggression. In addition, it is posited that physical abuse and neglect may have differential effects on development: Physical abuse may result in hypervigilance to threat and a hostile attributional bias, whereas neglect may result in difficulties with emotion regulation because of a lack of emotional interactions. These processes may be "hardwired" into neural networks via the overactivation of certain brain regions and dysfunctional cognitive processes. The theoretical and necessarily speculative nature of this article is intended to stimulate hypotheses for future research. Only when the adverse effects of maltreatment on brain and cognitive development are understood can scholars hope to develop more effective interventions to alter the developmental pathway to aggression.

Drugs of abuse and the elicitation of human aggressive behavior.

The drug-violence relationship exists for several reasons, some direct (drugs pharmacologically inducing violence) and some indirect (violence occurring in order to attain drugs). Moreover, the nature of that relationship is often complex, with intoxication, neurotoxic, and withdrawal effects often being confused and/or confounded. This paper reviews the existing literature regarding the extent to which various drugs of abuse may be directly associated with heightened interpersonal violence. Alcohol is clearly the drug with the most evidence to support a direct intoxication-violence relationship. The literatures concerning benzodiazepines, opiates, psychostimulants, and phencyclidine (PCP) are idiosyncratic but suggest that personality factors may be as (or more) important than pharmacological ones. Cannabis reduces likelihood of violence during intoxication, but mounting evidence associates withdrawal with aggressivity. The literature on the relationship between steroids and aggression is largely confounded, and between 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and aggression insufficient to draw any reasonable conclusions. Conclusions and policy implications are briefly discussed.

Alcohol affects executive cognitive functioning differentially on the ascending versus descending limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve.

BACKGROUND: Executive cognitive functioning (ECF), a construct that includes cognitive abilities such as planning, abstract reasoning, and the capacity to govern self-directed behavior, has been recently researched as an antecedent to many forms of psychopathology and has been implicated in alcohol-related aggression. This study was designed to examine whether differential ECF impairments can be noted on the ascending versus the descending limbs of the blood alcohol concentration curve. METHODS: Forty-one male university students participated in this study. Twenty-one subjects were given 1.32 ml of 95% alcohol per kilogram of body weight, mixed with orange juice, and the remaining 20 were given a placebo. Participants were randomly assigned to either an ascending or descending blood alcohol group and were tested on six tests of ECF on their assigned limb. Subjective mood data were also collected. RESULTS: Intoxicated participants on both limbs demonstrated ECF impairment; the descending-limb group showed greater impairment than their ascending-limb counterparts. Intoxicated subjects were significantly more anxious at baseline than placebo subjects. The introduction of this covariate nullified any significant differences in subjective mood found on either limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve, but ECF impairments remained robust. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the conclusion that alcohol negatively affects cognitive performance and has a differential effect on the descending versus the ascending limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve. The latter finding may have important ramifications relating to the detrimental consequences of alcohol intoxication.

Effects of alcohol on cardiovascular reactivity and the mediation of aggressive behaviour in adult men and women.

AIMS: Recent models have proposed several pharmacological means by which alcohol may produce heightened aggression, among them that alcohol may both hyper-arouse the reward system and diminish the threat detection system. The current study examined these hypotheses employing heart rate and blood pressure as physiological indices of arousal, examining whether arousal differed by alcohol group, and if this related to level of aggression. METHODS: Participants were 32 males and 32 females, aged 18-30 years, screened for physical and psychological disorder, who competed on the Taylor aggression paradigm. The gender groups were further split into half sober, half intoxicated. Arousal was measured at baseline, post-beverage consumption, and post-aggression paradigm. RESULTS: Participants in the alcohol condition initially demonstrated slight heart rate elevations and blood pressure decreases, but showed little arousal in response to the aggression paradigm, whereas sober participants demonstrated considerable arousal on both indices. Intoxicated participants were more aggressive than sober controls; men and women did not differ significantly. Regression analyses demonstrated that change in systolic blood pressure from post-beverage consumption to post-aggression paradigm acts as a mediating variable in the alcohol-aggression relationship. CONCLUSIONS: These results lend support to the stress-response dampening model of the alcohol-aggression relationship, and moreover suggest that the magnitude of intoxicated aggression is related to the magnitude of that dampening.