The role of gambling motives in gambling behavior and severity

Gambling is becoming increasingly popular among Australians, though it can lead to significant harm to some individuals and families (Browne et al., 2017). Within individuals who gamble, there is significant heterogeneity regarding their motives to gamble. This thesis broadly aimed to increase our understanding of this heterogeneity among individuals who gamble by exploring the relationship between gambling motives, gambling behaviour and problem gambling severity, with a view of informing targeted prevention and intervention efforts. The thesis lends upon two theoretical frameworks that have included gambling motives as a key component: (1) the pathways model of problem gambling to explain some of the key individual-level psychological characteristics that may influence the relationship between gambling problem gambling severity; and (2) the relapse prevention model to explain how motives may exist as tonic (stable background) and phasic (fluctuating states) variables influencing gambling behaviour. The relapse prevention model also proposes feedback loops in which gambling motives and lapses are reciprocally related, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.