The Prevalence and Impact of Religious and Spiritual Struggles among Veterans in a Residential Gambling Treatment Program. Gutierrez, I. A, Chapman, H., Grubbs, J., & Grant, J. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, February, 2020.
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Veterans of the U. S. Armed Forces are at greater risk for engaging in problem gambling and meeting diagnostic criteria for Gambling Disorder (GD) than are non-veterans. For veterans and non-veterans alike, religious/spiritual beliefs and practices support recovery from addiction and bolster mental health and well-being. Moreover, religious/spiritual ideas pervade Gamblers Anonymous (GA), which remains the predominant community-based treatment modality for GD. However, research has increasingly highlighted the negative impact of religious/spiritual struggles—i.e., conflicts, tensions, or problems associated with aspects of religious/spiritual life—on mental health and well-being. To date, no research has examined the role of religious/spiritual struggles in GD. The current study aimed to fill that gap in the literature by assessing the prevalence and impact of religious/spiritual struggles among U.S. veterans (N = 157) admitted to a residential treatment program for GD. Findings showed that a majority of veterans in the gambling treatment program endorsed each of six types of religious/spiritual struggles assessed. Moral struggles were the most prevalent, severe, and unremitting of the religious/spiritual struggles assessed. Findings highlight the need for clinicians and chaplains working with problem gamblers to address religious/spiritual struggles generally, and moral struggles most specifically, in treatment of GD.
@article{gutierrezPrevalenceImpactReligious2020,
  title = {The {{Prevalence}} and {{Impact}} of {{Religious}} and {{Spiritual Struggles}} among {{Veterans}} in a {{Residential Gambling Treatment Program}}},
  author = {Gutierrez, Ian A and Chapman, Heather and Grubbs, Joshua and Grant, Jennifer},
  year = {2020},
  month = feb,
  journal = {Mental Health, Religion \& Culture},
  doi = {10.31234/osf.io/mtps5},
  abstract = {Veterans of the U. S. Armed Forces are at greater risk for engaging in problem gambling and meeting diagnostic criteria for Gambling Disorder (GD) than are non-veterans. For veterans and non-veterans alike, religious/spiritual beliefs and practices support recovery from addiction and bolster mental health and well-being. Moreover, religious/spiritual ideas pervade Gamblers Anonymous (GA), which remains the predominant community-based treatment modality for GD. However, research has increasingly highlighted the negative impact of religious/spiritual struggles—i.e., conflicts, tensions, or problems associated with aspects of religious/spiritual life—on mental health and well-being. To date, no research has examined the role of religious/spiritual struggles in GD. The current study aimed to fill that gap in the literature by assessing the prevalence and impact of religious/spiritual struggles among U.S. veterans (N = 157) admitted to a residential treatment program for GD. Findings showed that a majority of veterans in the gambling treatment program endorsed each of six types of religious/spiritual struggles assessed. Moral struggles were the most prevalent, severe, and unremitting of the religious/spiritual struggles assessed. Findings highlight the need for clinicians and chaplains working with problem gamblers to address religious/spiritual struggles generally, and moral struggles most specifically, in treatment of GD.},
  copyright = {All rights reserved},
  file = {/Volumes/GoogleDrive/My Drive/Manuscripts/Zotero/storage/F76Z4IAS/Gutierrez et al. - 2020 - The Prevalence and Impact of Religious and Spiritu.pdf}
}

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