Moderated-Mediation Analyses of Cognitive Distortions and Youth Preoblem Gambling among a Nigerian Sample - Abstract
The present study investigated parental monitoring and age as pathways to understanding association between cognitive distortions and gambling problems among adolescents drawn from betting centers in Abakaliki, South-east Nigeria (N = 237, Mean Age = 17.03 years, SD = 4.01). Data were obtained from the youths by neans of the Inability to stop gambling scale, the Parental Monitoring Scale, and the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents. Moderated-mediation analysis results showed that age was positively associated with problem gambling and mediated the association between inability to stop gambling and gambling problems and this mediation was further moderated by parental monitoring. Specifically, the inability to stop gambling was linked to higher gambling problems through age for youths with low parental monitoring but not for those with high parental monitoring. We suggest that problem gambling prevention and intervention programs should target youths with low parental monitoring.