INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON GAMBLING BEHAVIOR AMONG YOUTHS IN ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Personality traits, gambling behavior, youth, NigeriaAbstract
This study was conducted to examine the influence of personality traits on gambling behavior among youths in a community in Abeokuta, Nigeria. This is because gambling has rapidly spread among young people in the world and is increasingly becoming a problem in Africa most especially Nigeria. Although, the advent of internet gambling has minimized physical aggression or combat between or among gamblers, but the economic loss, breaking of family ties as a result of impulsivity or uncontrollable gambling remain unabated. This study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. A total of two hundred questionnaires were distributed, one hundred and ninety-seven (197) were collected. The research instruments for collecting the data comprises Gamblers Belief Questionnaire and the Big Five Personality Inventory. The following constituted the participants of the study drawn through a convenient sampling technique; greater proportion of the respondents, one hundred and thirty-seven (137; 69.5%) were males, while the other sixty (60; 30.5%) were females. Average age of respondents was 26.67 (SD = 5.10), ranging from 18 and 40 years. The data were analyzed using independent sample t-test for all the five hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this study revealed that participants who are high on the four of the dimensions of the personality traits such as Extraversion, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness scored significantly higher on gambling behavior than those who are low on these traits, while those who are high on Neuroticism scored significantly lower on gambling behavior than those who are low on Neuroticism.This study recommend that government should make stringent regulatory policies to discourage easy accessibility to gambling activities. Mass awareness should be embarked upon to enlighten people about the inherent social-economic implications of gambling. These findings advance the understanding of the role of the dimensions of personality traits on gambling behavior among the youth and contributed to the growing knowledge in this regard.References
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