How does gambling behaviour affect work and nonwork roles?

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Author(s): Eby, Lillian T. ; Robertson, Melissa ; WIlliamson, Rachel ; Maupin, Cynthia K.

Journal: Community, Work & Family

Year Published: 2020

Date Added: July 22, 2020

‘Work life’ and ‘family life’ can conflict with each other in many ways. Recently, more scholars are looking at understanding how other nonwork areas (e.g., leisure, health, education) cause different types of interference in work and family life. This study tested a process-oriented framework to explore gambling interference in work and nonwork domains. The researchers also assessed whether cognitive withdrawal from work and nonwork roles linked gambling interference to reduced role performance. Participants (259) were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). To meet inclusion criteria, they had to be living in the United States, be 18 years of age or older, gambled at least weekly, and worked 20 or more hours per week. Findings suggest that gambling behaviour creates strain and interferes with both work and nonwork roles. This in turn reduces job performance and negatively impacts nonwork areas. Cognitive withdrawal from one’s role partly explains the negative effects of gambling on role performance in work and nonwork areas.

Citation: Eby, L. T., Roberston, M., Williamson, R., & Maupin, C. K. (2020). The development and test of a framework examining the associations between gambling behavior, strain-based gambling interference with work and nonwork, cognitive disengagement, and role performance. Community, Work & Family, 23(2), 201-223. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2018.1473336

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2018.1473336

Keywords: employment ; family impacts ; gambling ; workplace

Topics: Family and Friends ; Lottery

Conceptual Framework Factors: Environment - Social and Economic Impacts ; Social - Family and Peer Gambling Involvement ; Social - Social Demographics ; Gambling Environment ; Social Factors

Response Rate: 5% response rate

Study Design: Observational: Cross-sectional

Geographic Coverage: United States of America

Study Population: Adults who gambled at least weekly and worked at least 20 hours per week (N= 259)

Sampling Procedure: Participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing website. The screening questionnaire asked about gambling frequency, employment status, hours worked, and age. Participants were directed to the full survey if they reported gambling at least weekly, worked at least 20 hours per week, were over 18 years of age, and lived in the United States. 4,615 responses were received from the screening questionnaire over a 3-month period. Of these, 259 qualified to participate in the full study.

Study Funding:

No funding source was declared.