Relationship between Life Stress and Gambling Behavior Perceived by University Students - The mediation effects of self-control and family support -

This study examined the structural relationship between life stress perceived by university students and their gambling behaviors through their self-control and family support. For this, it conducted the questionnaire on life stress, self-control, family support and gambling behavior with 387 university students attending universities in Gwangju city and analyzed the data collected. The results of the analysis were described below. As a result of analyzing the direct effects of life stress on gambling behavior, self-control and family support, it was found that the life stress had the positive effect on gambling behavior and it meant that when the university students couldn't cope with the life stress effectively and felt frustrated, they were likely to be involved in gambling behavior to escape from their helplessness. In addition, as a result of analyzing the direct effects of life stress on self-control and family support, it was found that life stress had negative effect on self-control and family support. The more experiences of life stress they had, the lower their self-control was. As their life stress was higher, they didn't make supportive relationship network with family members. As a result of mediating effects, it was shown that self-control and family support played the partially negative roles in the relationship between life stress and gambling behavior and it suggested that as the life stress was perceived less, self-control was performed better and as family support was higher, gambling behavior was effectively reduced. These results of the research suggested that life stress could be handled actively through self-control and family support and development and distribution of the program to cope with life stress could minimize the gambling behaviors. Also the limitations of this study and necessity of further studies were discussed.