Psychometric evaluation of the Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire with treatment-seeking disordered gamblers

•Psychometric evaluation of Gamblers’ Beliefs Questionnaire with disordered gamblers.•GBQ scores correspond significantly with measures of gambling severity.•Factor analytic data support a unique factor structure with clinical sample.•The findings support validity of GBQ for clinical assessment.

Growing evidence for the efficacy of cognitive–behavioral therapy for disordered gambling supports the need for a comprehensive set of gambling-related assessment measures that have been validated with treatment-seeking samples. The Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ) is a self-report measure that was designed to identify gambling-related cognitive distortions (Steenbergh, Meyers, May, & Whelan, 2002). In this study, the GBQ demonstrated good internal consistency and adequate construct validity in a treatment-seeking sample of disordered gamblers. Additionally, scores on the measure significantly decreased across a brief cognitive–behavioral treatment, providing validity support for use of the GBQ with a clinical population.