Offspring of parents with gambling problems: adjustment problems and explanatory mechanisms.
We compared offspring of problem gamblers (n = 42) to offspring of parents without gambling problems (n = 100) to see (1) whether the two groups differed with respect to depressive feelings and conduct/antisociality problems and (2) whether ineffective parenting or the offspring's own gambling problems played a mediating role in this context. Participants were drawn from a relatively large community-based study (N = 1,872). Parents rated their own gambling and other mental health problems when their children were in mid-adolescence. The children's self-reports on depressive feelings and conduct/antisociality problems were assessed at two points in time: by mid-adolescence and again by early adulthood. Results showed that children of parents with gambling problems reported more depressive feelings and more conduct problems by mid-adolescence than children of parents without gambling problems. Children of problem gamblers also experienced an increase in their depressive symptoms from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Importantly, ineffective parenting, but not children's gambling problems, mediated almost all the links between parental problem gambling and children's adjustment problems. These results add to a very small data base showing that children of problem gamblers are at risk for a variety of adjustment problems.
Vitaro
Frank
F
Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal, 3050 Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3T 1J7. frank.vitaro@umontreal.ca
Wanner
Brigitte
B
Brendgen
Mara
M
Tremblay
Richard E
RE
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011792:Quebec; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis