Shame and Blame in Gambling: Relationship with Emotion Regulation and Gambling Motives

Gambling disorder is a problem that is affecting increasingly more people. It is associated with difficulties in emotion regulation, gambling motives, blame, and shame. This study aims to study the relationship between gambling severity, blame, and shame, independently and together with emotion regulation and gambling motives; to analyse the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between gambling severity and shame; and to compare mean differences in the study variables according to the sample group. For this purpose, a clinical and non-clinical sample of 158 individuals (119 males and 39 females) ranging in age from 12 to 30 years (M= 19.70, SD= 5.35) was divided into three groups. The questionnaires were administered online and on paper. The results showed that blame and shame are related to the severity of gambling. In the case of shame, this relationship was found to be partially mediated by the emotion regulation strategy of self-blame. Gambling severity, blame and shame were also found to be related to various gambling motives and different emotion regulation strategies. All this information can be of great use in the prevention and treatment of gambling problems.