Dependencia emocional y consecuencias psicológicas del abuso de internet y móvil en jóvenes.

New technologies are increasingly present in our daily lives, what makes necessary the study of their possible consequences and relationship with addictive behaviors. In this sense, adolescence is an especially vulnerable age for the appearance of risk behaviors such as addictions, as there is a tendency towards dependency at this development stage. The present study was carried out with a sample of 535 young university students in order to analyze emotional dependency in dating relationships and the psychological consequences of Internet and mobile use (such as anxious and depressive symptoms and low self-esteem), considering gender differences, the role that emotional dependency plays in their use, and the predictive role of their use on the aforementioned consequences. The results showed gender differences in mobile abuse, depression, and self-esteem. Also, emotional dependency correlated with Internet and mobile abuse, and both constructs correlated with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Finally, emotional dependency predicted Internet and mobile abuse, as well as anxious and depressive symptomatology and low self-esteem. These variables also predicted mobile and Internet abuse. This study provides new keys to understanding emotional dependency and Internet and mobile abuse, and their inter-relationships and relationship with other constructs.La creciente presencia de las nuevas tecnologías en nuestras vidas hace necesaria el estudio de sus posibles consecuencias y del desarrollo de conductas adictivas.  En este sentido, la adolescencia es una edad especialmente vulnerable a la aparición de conductas de riesgo como las adicciones por tratarse de una etapa marcada por un exceso de dependencia.  Por ello, con una muestra de 535 jóvenes universitarios, el presente estudio pretende analizar la dependencia emocional y las consecuencias psicológicas en relación al uso de Internet y móvil (a nivel de sintomatología ansioso-depresiva y autoestima), considerando también las diferencias de género, así como el papel que juega la dependencia emocional en este uso y el papel predictor del uso sobre las mencionadas consecuencias.  Los resultados muestran que habría diferencias de género en el abuso de móvil, depresión y autoestima. Además, la dependencia emocional correlacionaría con el abuso de Internet y móvil, y ambos constructos correlacionarían con ansiedad, depresión y autoestima. Finalmente. La dependencia emocional sería predictora del abuso de Internet y móvil, así como de la sintomatología ansiosa y depresiva, y de la autoestima, que también serían predictores del abuso de móvil e Internet. Este estudio proporciona nuevas claves a la hora de comprender la dependencia emocional y el abuso de Internet y móvil, y de la relación que mantienen entre sí y con otros constructos

How do online sports gambling disorder patients compare with land-based patients?

Background and aims: recent technological developments have brought about notable changes in the way people gamble. The widespread use of mobile Internet devices and gambling websites has led to a significant leap in the number of people who recreationally gamble. However, for some, gambling can turn into a psychiatric disorder resembling substance addiction. At present, there is a shortage of studies examining differences between adults with gambling disorder (GD) who exclusively make sports bets online, GD patients that are non-sports Internet gamblers, and offline gamblers. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the differences between these three groups, considering sociodemographic, personality, and clinical characteristics. Methods: the sample consisted of 2,743 treatment-seeking male patients from the Pathological Gambling Unit at a university hospital. All patients met DSM-5 criteria for GD. Results: we found that gamblers who exclusively engaged in non-sports Internet gambling activities were younger than offline gamblers and online sports gamblers. Non-sports Internet gamblers were also more likely to have greater levels of debt compared with offline gamblers. In terms of personality characteristics, our sample displayed low levels of self-directedness and cooperativeness and high levels of novelty seeking. In addition, online sports gamblers obtained higher scores in persistence than non-sports Internet gamblers and offline gamblers. Discussion and conclusion: although differences if terms of gambling severity were not identified between groups, GD patients who exclusively bet online appear to possess distinct personality characteristics and higher debt levels compared with offline gamblers

How do online sports gambling disorder patients compare with land-based patients?

Background and aims Recent technological developments have brought about notable changes in the way people gamble. The widespread use of mobile Internet devices and gambling websites has led to a significant leap in the number of people who recreationally gamble. However, for some, gambling can turn into a psychiatric disorder resembling substance addiction. At present, there is a shortage of studies examining differences between adults with gambling disorder (GD) who exclusively make sports bets online, GD patients that are non-sports Internet gamblers, and offline gamblers. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the differences between these three groups, considering sociodemographic, personality, and clinical characteristics. Methods The sample consisted of 2,743 treatment-seeking male patients from the Pathological Gambling Unit at a university hospital. All patients met DSM-5 criteria for GD. Results We found that gamblers who exclusively engaged in non-sports Internet gambling activities were younger than offline gamblers and online sports gamblers. Non-sports Internet gamblers were also more likely to have greater levels of debt compared with offline gamblers. In terms of personality characteristics, our sample displayed low levels of self-directedness and cooperativeness and high levels of novelty seeking. In addition, online sports gamblers obtained higher scores in persistence than non-sports Internet gamblers and offline gamblers. Discussion and conclusion Although differences if terms of gambling severity were not identified between groups, GD patients who exclusively bet online appear to possess distinct personality characteristics and higher debt levels compared with offline gamblers

Dependencia emocional en el noviazgo y consecuencias psicológicas del abuso de internet y móvil en jóvenes

La creciente presencia de las nuevas tecnologías en nuestras vi- das hace necesaria el estudio de sus posibles consecuencias y del desarrollo de conductas adictivas. En este sentido, la adolescencia es una edad espe- cialmente vulnerable a la aparición de conductas de riesgo como las adic- ciones por tratarse de una etapa marcada por un exceso de dependencia. Por ello, con una muestra de 535 jóvenes universitarios, el presente estudio pretende analizar la dependencia emocional en el noviazgo y las consecuen- cias psicológicas en relación al uso de Internet y móvil (a nivel de sintoma- tología ansioso-depresiva y autoestima), considerando también las diferen- cias de género, así como el papel que juega la dependencia emocional en es- te uso y el papel predictor del uso sobre las mencionadas consecuencias. Los resultados muestran que habría diferencias de género en el abuso de móvil, depresión y autoestima. Además, la dependencia emocional correla- cionaría con el abuso de Internet y móvil, y ambos constructos correlacio- narían con ansiedad, depresión y autoestima. Finalmente. La dependencia emocional sería predictora del abuso de Internet y móvil, así como de la sintomatología ansiosa y depresiva, y de la autoestima, que también serían predictores del abuso de móvil e Internet. Este estudio proporciona nuevas claves a la hora de comprender la dependencia emocional y el abuso de In- ternet y móvil, y de la relación que mantienen entre sí y con otros construc- tos.New technologies are increasingly present in our daily lives, what makes necessary the study of its possible consequences and development of addictive behaviours. In this sense, it must be said that adolescence is an especially vulnerable age for the appearance of risk behaviours such as addictions. This responds to the fact of being an excessively dependent development stage. The present study was carried out with a sample of 535 youth university students in order to analyze the emotional depend- ence in dating relationships and the psychological consequences of using Internet and mobile-phones (thus anxious and depressive symptoms and self-esteem), considering gender differences as well as the role that emo- tional dependence plays on this use and the predictive role of the use over the consequences mentioned before. The results showed gender differ- ences in the abuse of mobile, depression, and self-esteem. Also, emotional dependency correlated with Internet and mobile abuse, and both con- structs correlated with anxiety, depression and self-esteem. Finally, emo- tional dependency predicted Internet and mobile abuse, as well as anxious and depressive symptomatology and self-esteem, which also predicted mo- bile and Internet abuse. This study provides new keys to the understanding of the emotional dependency and Internet and mobile abuse, and the rela- tionship they have amongst them and with other constructs

How do online sports gambling disorder patients compare with land-based patients?

Recent technological developments have brought about notable changes in the way people gamble. The widespread use of mobile Internet devices and gambling websites has led to a significant leap in the number of people who recreationally gamble. However, for some, gambling can turn into a psychiatric disorder resembling substance addiction. At present, there is a shortage of studies examining differences between adults with gambling disorder (GD) who exclusively make sports bets online, GD patients that are non-sports Internet gamblers, and offline gamblers. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the differences between these three groups, considering sociodemographic, personality, and clinical characteristics. The sample consisted of 2,743 treatment-seeking male patients from the Pathological Gambling Unit at a university hospital. All patients met DSM-5 criteria for GD. We found that gamblers who exclusively engaged in non-sports Internet gambling activities were younger than offline gamblers and online sports gamblers. Non-sports Internet gamblers were also more likely to have greater levels of debt compared with offline gamblers. In terms of personality characteristics, our sample displayed low levels of self-directedness and cooperativeness and high levels of novelty seeking. In addition, online sports gamblers obtained higher scores in persistence than non-sports Internet gamblers and offline gamblers. Although differences if terms of gambling severity were not identified between groups, GD patients who exclusively bet online appear to possess distinct personality characteristics and higher debt levels compared with offline gamblers

Exploring the Predictive Value of Gambling Motives, Cognitive Distortions, and Materialism on Problem Gambling Severity in Adolescents and Young Adults

Gambling motives and cognitive distortions are thought to be associated because both coping and financial motives to gamble appear to be predictors of gambling related cognitive distortions. Therefore, there is an argument to be made that gambling motives, cognitive distortions, and materialism share common attributes and might be related to problem gambling severity. The present paper aims to examine the relationship between these three variables, both in a clinical and community setting, to see if they can predict gambling severity. A sample of 250 participants from the general population and 31 participants from the clinical population was recruited. The results showed that the clinical sample scored higher on gambling severity, cognitive distortions, materialism, and gambling motives. It also showed that low scores in enhancement motives and higher scores in social motives and gambling related cognitions predicted gambling severity in older gamblers, whereas for younger patients, gambling severity was best predicted by higher scores in materialism and coping motives, and lower scores for enhancement and social motives. In the community sample, gambling severity correlated with gambling related cognitive distortions and with gambling motives (except for social and coping motives within the women subsample). These results testify to the importance of materialism, cognitive distortions, and gambling motives as risk factors for problem gambling both in community and clinical samples