Affect Regulation Motives for Gambling and Gambling Engagement: A Two-Year Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model

The present study investigated how affect regulation motives for gambling relate to gambling frequency over a two-year period, with particular attention to differences between individuals who gamble on sports and those who gamble but not on sports. Participants were recruited from a nonprobability internet panel from two sources: a large cross-section of adults matched and weighted to US Census norms and a specific oversample of sports-gambling adults (Baseline N = 1,760). Analyzing five waves of data collected over two years, we found robust between-person associations: Higher gambling frequency corresponded with stronger affect regulation motives. Contrary to expectations, both coping and enhancement motives were strongly related to gambling frequency in sports gamblers, suggesting that this group may be more broadly motivated to gamble for affect regulation. At the within-person level, three consistent findings emerged across groups: (1) coping and enhancement motives were strongly correlated within timepoints, (2) gambling frequency was stable over time, and (3) elevated enhancement motives at a given time point predicted increases in gambling frequency six months later.