The unique and common contributions of impulsivity and decision-making strategies among young adult Italian regular gamblers

•We found a predictive role of impulsivity and decision making on gambling.•We found that buck-passing decision making mediates the relationship between non-planning impulsivity and gambling.•Procrastination mediates the relationship between attentional impulsivity and gambling.

The purpose of this study is to verify the existence of an explanatory model of risk that starts with dysfunctional impulsivity, passes through maladaptive decision-making strategies, and culminates with pathological gambling. Self-reporting measures concerning impulsivity, decision making, and gambling were administered to 222 Caucasian young adults (53% male) ages 20 to 24 (M = 22.1; SD = 3.1) who were recruited in betting or bingo halls. Results show that buck-passing decision making partially mediated the relationship between non-planning impulsivity and gambling. Moreover, procrastination decision making partially mediated the relationship between attentional impulsivity and gambling. Thus, the findings show that young adults with personalities characterized by impulsivity tend to adopt maladaptive styles of decision making that predispose them to gamble. Among regular gamblers, the failure to resist an impulse pushes individuals to seek maladaptive cognitive styles to the solution of a problem, as could be the awareness of a behavioral addiction.