The utility of outcome expectancies in the prediction of adolescent gambling behaviour

The Gambling Expectancy Questionnaire (GEQ; Gillespie, Derevensky & Gupta, 2006, previous article) suggests that adolescents hold a variety of positive and negative outcome expectancies related to gambling. Significant age, gender, and DSM-IV-MR-J gambling group differences were identified on the scales of the GEQ (i.e., enjoyment/arousal, self-enhancement, money, overinvolvement, emotional impact) in this study. Direct logistic regression among adolescent gamblers was performed separately for males and females to predict group membership in either social or problem gambling categories. The results provide insightful information suggesting that non-gamblers, social gamblers, at-risk gamblers, and probable pathological gamblers (PPGs) differ in the strength of their expectancies of both the positive and negative outcomes of gambling behaviour. In particular, PPGs highly anticipate both the positive and negative outcomes of gambling. Among males, these perceptions differentiate those who gamble excessively and those who do not. For females, outcome expectancies may have less predictive value. These findings were interpreted in terms of their implications for prevention, treatment, and future research.