Overlapping addictions and self-esteem among college men and women

To examine whether there is a tendency for individuals to be multiply addic ted, overlapping addictions to common substances (alcohol, caffeine, chocol ate, cigarettes) and activities (exercise, gambling, Internet use, televisi on, video games) were studied in 129 college men and women. Contrary to pre vious research, moderate to large correlations were found, both within and between substances and activities. Self-esteem was positively related to ex ercise but unrelated to the remaining addictions. Several gender difference s in addictive tendencies were also revealed: Men scored higher than women on addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, television, and Internet use , but women scored higher on caffeine and chocolate. The results have impli cations for theories of addiction and suggest new directions for the study of addiction among normally functioning young adults. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd.