Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:58:22.136Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Childhood maltreatment and disordered gambling in adulthood: disentangling causal and familial influences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2020

Genevieve F. Dash Open the ORCID record for Genevieve F. Dash [Opens in a new window] ,
Nicholas G. Martin  and
Wendy S. Slutske
Genevieve F. Dash*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
Nicholas G. Martin
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research-Berghofer, Herston, QLD, AUS
Wendy S. Slutske
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Genevieve F. Dash, E-mail: genevievedash@mail.missouri.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Despite abundant research on the potential causal influence of childhood maltreatment (CM) on psychological maladaptation in adulthood, almost none has implemented the discordant twin design as a means of examining the role of such experiences in later disordered gambling (DG) while accounting for genetic and family environmental confounds. The present study implemented such an approach to disentangle the potential causal and familial factors that may account for the association between CM and DG.

Methods

Participants were 3750 twins from the Australian Twin Registry [Mage = 37.60 (s.d. = 2.31); 58% female]. CM and DG were assessed separately via two semi-structured telephone interviews. Random-intercept generalized linear mixed models were fit to the data; zygosity, sex, educational attainment, childhood psychiatric disorder, adult antisocial behavior, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) were included as covariates.

Results

Neither quasi-causal nor familial effects of CM predicted DG after adjusting for covariates. Educational attainment appeared to reduce the risk of DG while AUD appeared to increase risk; evidence also emerged for familial effects of antisocial behavior on DG. Post-hoc analyses revealed a familial effect of CM on antisocial behavior, indicating that the association between CM and DG identified in unadjusted models and in prior studies may be accounted for by genetic and shared family environmental effects of antisociality.

Conclusions

These findings add to the meager literature showing that CM does not exert a causal effect on DG, and present novel evidence that familial effects of antisocial behavior may account for the association between CM and DG identified in extant non-twin research.

Keywords

Antisocial behaviorchildhood maltreatmentdisordered gamblingmultilevel modelingtwin study
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 52 , Issue 5 , April 2022 , pp. 979 - 988
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adshead, G. (2015). Parenting and personality disorder: Clinical and child protection implications. BJPsych Advances, 21(1), 15–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Afifi, T. O., Mather, A., Boman, J., Fleisher, W., Enns, M. W., MacMillan, H., & Sareen, J. (2011). Childhood adversity and personality disorders: Results from a nationally representative population-based study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 45(6), 814–822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andronicos, M., Beauchamp, G., DiMambro, M., Robert, M., Besson, J., & Séguin, M. (2015). Do male and female gamblers have the same burden of adversity over their life course? International Gambling Studies, 15(2), 224–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berenz, E. C., Amstadter, A. B., Aggen, S. H., Knudsen, G. P., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., Gardner, C. O., & Kendler, K. S. (2013). Childhood trauma and personality disorder criterion counts: A co-twin control analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(4), 1070–1076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, D. W., Shaw, M. C., McCormick, B. A., & Allen, J. (2012). Marital status, childhood maltreatment, and family dysfunction: A controlled study of pathological gambling. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 73(10), 1293–1297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornovalova, M. A., Huibregtse, B. M., Hicks, B. M., Keyes, M., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. (2013). Tests of a direct effect of childhood abuse on adult borderline personality disorder traits: A longitudinal discordant twin design. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(1), 180–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briere, J., & Elliott, D. M. (2003). Prevalence and psychological sequelae of self-reported childhood physical and sexual abuse in a general population sample of men and women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(10), 1205–1222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholz, K. K., Cadoret, R., Cloninger, C. R., Dinwiddie, S. H., Hesselbrock, V., Nurnberger, J. Jr, … Schuckit, M. A. (1994). A new, semi-structured psychiatric interview for use in genetic linkage studies: A report on the reliability of the SSAGA. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55(2), 149–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, C. N., Slutske, W. S., Martin, N. G., Agrawal, A., & Lynskey, M. T. (2019). Genetic and environmental influences on gambling disorder liability: A replication and combined analysis of two twin studies. Psychological Medicine, 49(10), 1705–1712.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dion, J., Cantinotti, M., Ross, A., & Collin-Vezina, D. (2015). Sexual abuse, residential schooling and probable pathological gambling among Indigenous Peoples. Child Abuse & Neglect, 44, 56–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dion, J., Collin-Vézina, D., De La Sablonnière, M., Philippe-Labbé, M.-P., & Giffard, T. (2009). An exploration of the connection between child sexual abuse and gambling in Aboriginal communities. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(2), 174–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, D. L., & Martin, N. G. (1994). Inferring the direction of causation in cross-sectional twin data: Theoretical and empirical considerations. Genetic Epidemiology, 11(6), 483–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunne, M. P., Purdie, D. M., Cook, M. D., Boyle, F. M., & Najman, J. M. (2003). Is child sexual abuse declining? Evidence from a population-based survey of men and women in Australia. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(2), 141–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The Economist online (2017, February 9). The world's biggest gamblers. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/02/09/the-worlds-biggest-gamblers.Google Scholar
Edwards, V. J., Holden, G. W., Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (2003). Relationship between multiple forms of childhood maltreatment and adult mental health in community respondents: Results from the adverse childhood experiences study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(8), 1453–1460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisen, S. A., Lin, N., Lyons, M. J., Scherrer, J. F., Griffith, K., True, W. R., … Tsuang, M. T. (1998). Familial influences on gambling behavior: An analysis of 3359 twin pairs. Addiction, 93(9), 1375–1384.Google ScholarPubMed
Farrington, D. P. (2005). Childhood origins of antisocial behavior. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 12(3), 177–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felsher, J. R., Derevensky, J. L., & Gupta, R. (2009). Young adults with gambling problems: The impact of childhood maltreatment. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(4), 545–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forsman, M., & Långström, N. (2012). Child maltreatment and adult violent offending: Population-based twin study addressing the ‘cycle of violence’ hypothesis. Psychological Medicine, 42(9), 1977–1983.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerstein, D., Volberg, R. A., Toce, M., Harwood, H., Johnson, R., Buie, T., … Engelman, L. (1999). Gambling impact and behavior study: Report to the national gambling impact study commission. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.Google Scholar
Heath, A. C., Kessler, R. C., Neale, M. C., Hewitt, J. K., Eaves, L. J., & Kendler, K. S. (1993). Testing hypotheses about direction of causation using cross-sectional family data. Behavior Genetics, 23(1), 29–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hedeker, D. (2005). Generalized linear mixed models. In Everitt, B.S., & Howell, D.C. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science (pp. 727–738). Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley.Google Scholar
Henderson, W. G., Eisen, S., Goldberg, J., True, W. R., Barnes, J. E., & Vitek, M. E. (1990). The Vietnam Era Twin Registry: A resource for medical research. Public Health Reports, 105(4), 368–373.Google ScholarPubMed
Hodgins, D. C., Schopflocher, D. P., el-Guebaly, N., Casey, D. M., Smith, G. J., Williams, R. J., & Wood, R. T. (2010). The association between childhood maltreatment and gambling problems in a community sample of adult men and women. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24(3), 548–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaffee, S. R., & Price, T. S. (2007). Gene–environment correlations: A review of the evidence and implications for prevention of mental illness. Molecular Psychiatry, 12(5), 432–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, R. C., Andrews, G., Mroczek, D., Ustun, B., & Wittchen, H. U. (1998). The World Health Organization composite international diagnostic interview short-form (CIDI-SF). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 7(4), 171–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, W., Sacco, P., Downton, K., Ludeman, E., Levy, L., & Tracy, J. K. (2016). Child maltreatment and problem gambling: A systematic review. Child Abuse & Neglect, 58, 24–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsen, C. V., Curtis, T., & Bjerregaard, P. (2013). Gambling behavior and problem gambling reflecting social transition and traumatic childhood events among Greenland Inuit: A cross-sectional study in a large indigenous population undergoing rapid change. Journals of Gambling Studies, 29(4), 733–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lesieur, H. R., & Blume, S. B. (1987). The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS): A new instrument for the identification of pathological gamblers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144(9), 1184–1188.Google ScholarPubMed
Luntz, B. K., & Widom, C. S. (1994). Antisocial personality disorder in abused and neglected children grown up. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 151(5), 670–674.Google ScholarPubMed
Lynskey, M. T., Heath, A., Nelson, E., Bucholz, K., Madden, P., Slutske, W., … Martin, N. (2002). Genetic and environmental contributions to cannabis dependence in a national young adult twin sample. Psychological Medicine, 32(2), 195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGue, M., Osler, M., & Christensen, K. (2010). Causal inference and observational research: The utility of twins. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(5), 546–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meehl, P. E. (1971). High school yearbooks: A reply to Schwarz. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 77(2), 143–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, S. E., Scott, J. G., Ferrari, A. J., Mills, R., Dunne, M. P., Erskine, H. E., … McCarthy, M. (2015). Burden attributable to child maltreatment in Australia. Child Abuse & Neglect, 48, 208–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. (2017). Mplus user's guide: Statistical analysis with latent variables, user's guide. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
Newbury, J. B., Arseneault, L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Danese, A., Baldwin, J. R., & Fisher, H. L. (2018). Measuring childhood maltreatment to predict early-adult psychopathology: Comparison of prospective informant-reports and retrospective self-reports. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 96, 57–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nixon, G., Evans, K., Grant Kalischuk, R., Solowoniuk, J., McCallum, K., & Hagen, B. (2012). Female gambling, trauma, and the not good enough self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 11(2), 214–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Donnell, M., Scott, D., & Stanley, F. (2008). Child abuse and neglect – is it time for a public health approach? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 32(4), 325–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peltzer, K., Mabilu, M., Mathoho, S., Nekhwevha, A., Sikhwivhilu, T., & Sinthumule, T. (2006). Trauma history and severity of gambling involvement among horse-race gamblers in a South African gambling setting. Psychological Reports, 99(2), 472–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petry, N. M., Steinberg, K. L., & Women's Problem Gambling Research Center. (2005). Childhood maltreatment in male and female treatment-seeking pathological gamblers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19(2), 226–229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poole, J. C., Kim, H. S., Dobson, K. S., & Hodgins, D. C. (2017). Adverse childhood experiences and disordered gambling: Assessing the mediating role of emotion dysregulation. Journal of Gambling Studies, 33(4), 1187–1200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reuben, A., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Belsky, D. W., Harrington, H., Schroeder, F., … Danese, A. (2016). Lest we forget: Comparing retrospective and prospective assessments of adverse childhood experiences in the prediction of adult health. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(10), 1103–1112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richmond-Rakerd, L. S., Trull, T. J., Gizer, I. R., McLaughlin, K., Scheiderer, E. M., Nelson, E. C., … Statham, D. J. (2019). Common genetic contributions to high-risk trauma exposure and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Psychological Medicine, 49(3), 421–430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, A., Sharman, S., Coid, J., Murphy, R., Bowden-Jones, H., Cowlishaw, S., & Landon, J. (2017). Gambling and negative life events in a nationally representative sample of UK men. Addictive Behaviors, 75, 95–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenström, T., Czajkowski, N. O., Ystrom, E., Krueger, R. F., Aggen, S. H., Gillespie, N. A., … Torvik, F. A. (2019). Genetically informative mediation modeling applied to stressors and personality-disorder traits in etiology of alcohol use disorder. Behavior Genetics, 49(1), 11–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SAS, Inc (2014). Base SAS® 9.4 procedures guide: Statistical procedures. Cary: SAS Institute Inc.Google Scholar
Schaefer, J. D., Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Danese, A., Fisher, H. L., Houts, R., … Caspi, A. (2018). Adolescent victimization and early-adult psychopathology: Approaching causal inference using a longitudinal twin study to rule out noncausal explanations. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(3), 352–371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scherrer, J. F., Xian, H., Kapp, J. M., Waterman, B., Shah, K. R., Volberg, R., & Eisen, S. A. (2007). Association between exposure to childhood and lifetime traumatic events and lifetime pathological gambling in a twin cohort. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 195(1), 72–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharma, A., & Sacco, P. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and gambling: Results from a national survey. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 15(1), 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shultz, S. K., Shaw, M., McCormick, B., Allen, J., & Black, D. W. (2016). Intergenerational childhood maltreatment in persons with DSM-IV pathological gambling and their first-degree relatives. Journal of Gambling Studies, 32(3), 877–887.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slutske, W. S. (2019). Genetic and environmental contributions to risk for disordered gambling. In Heinz, A., Romanczul-Seiferth, N., & Potenza, M (Eds.), Gambling disorder (pp. 73–100). Cham: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slutske, W. S., Deutsch, A. R., Richmond-Rakerd, L. S., Chernyavskiy, P., Statham, D. J., & Martin, N. G. (2014). Test of a potential causal influence of earlier age of gambling initiation on gambling involvement and disorder: A multilevel discordant twin design. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 28(4), 1177–1189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slutske, W. S., Deutsch, A. R., Statham, D. J., & Martin, N. G. (2015). Local area disadvantage and gambling involvement and disorder: Evidence for gene-environment correlation and interaction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(3), 606–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slutske, W. S., Meier, M. H., Zhu, G., Statham, D. J., Blaszczynski, A., & Martin, N. G. (2009). The Australian Twin Study of Gambling (OZ-GAM): Rationale, sample description, predictors of participation, and a first look at sources of individual differences in gambling involvement. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 12(1), 63–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slutske, W. S., Piasecki, T. M., Deutsch, A. R., Statham, D. J., & Martin, N. G. (2019). Potential causal influence of neighborhood disadvantage on disordered gambling: Evidence from a multilevel discordant twin design. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(3), 582–596.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slutske, W. S., Zhu, G., Meier, M. H., & Martin, N. G. (2010). Genetic and environmental influences on disordered gambling in men and women. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(6), 624–630.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slutske, W. S., Zhu, G., Meier, M. H., & Martin, N. G. (2011). Disordered gambling as defined by the DSM-IV and the South Oaks Gambling Screen: Evidence for a common etiologic structure. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(3), 743–751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoltenborgh, M., Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Euser, E. M., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2011). A global perspective on child sexual abuse: Meta-analysis of prevalence around the world. Child Maltreatment, 16(2), 79–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welte, J., Barnes, G., Wieczorek, W., Tidwell, M.-C., & Parker, J. (2001). Alcohol and gambling pathology among US adults: Prevalence, demographic patterns and comorbidity. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 62(5), 706–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenzel, H. G., & Dahl, A. A. (2008). Female pathological gamblers – A critical review of the clinical findings. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 7(1), 190–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (1992). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Weekly Epidemiological Record, 67(30), 227–227.Google Scholar
Young-Wolff, K. C., Kendler, K. S., Ericson, M. L., & Prescott, C. A. (2011). Accounting for the association between childhood maltreatment and alcohol-use disorders in males: A twin study. Psychological Medicine, 41(1), 59–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Dash et al. supplementary material

Dash et al. supplementary material

Download Dash et al. supplementary material(File)
File 68.5 KB