Childhood Hyperactivity Predicts Later Affinity for Gambling

Dr. Linda Pagani surveyed a group of kindergarten children, and discovered those graded as highly impulsive were twenty-five percent more likely to have gambling behavior by the sixth grade.

A study published in a leading medical journal documents compelling evidence that young children with short attention spans and bouts of hyperactivity are more likely to begin gambling in adolescence than the norm. Dr. Linda Pagani surveyed a group of kindergarten children, and discovered those graded as highly impulsive were twenty-five percent more likely to have gambling behavior by the sixth grade.

Publishing in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Pagani stated that her research indicates "that behavioral features such as inattentiveness, distractibility and hyperactivity at school entry represent a vulnerability factor for precocious risk-oriented behavior like gambling in sixth grade."

She postulates that brain regions controlling both problem gambling and impulsivity may also involve decision-making and self-control. The study argues that education and training in making decisions and self-discipline at an early age may prevent the development of dysfunctional risk/reward patterns.

Of 163 kindergartners studied, over fourteen percent said they had gambled at cards for money by age eleven. Almost ten percent had participated in sports gambling, and four percent had bought lottery tickets.

Pagani said in an interview with Bloomberg, "These behaviors are already a risk factor for a lot of long-term consequences, such as substance abuse, school performance and unemployment. Our research findings now add gambling behavior to that list of consequences.”