This study examined whether thinking styles could affect the relationship between maladaptive personality traits and problem gambling. The researchers recruited 325 regular adolescent gamblers. The results revealed that thinking styles and maladaptive personality traits predicted gambling problems. Having an executive thinking style predicted more gambling problems. This might be because adolescents with this thinking style might engage in gambling without deciding on the costs and benefits on their own. Adolescents who were more prone to the personality trait of antagonism (e.g., being aggressive and callous) were more likely to have an executive thinking style, leading them to gamble problematically. However, the judicial style of thinking was an adaptive thinking style against problem gambling. Adolescents with this thinking style might weigh their choices and decide on their actions. Thus, it could help adolescents who were more prone to disinhibition (e.g., being impulsive) to make better choices and exert control over their impulses to gamble.
