“Addictive behaviors are at the extreme end of a spectrum that we all sit on” (Svanberg, 2018, p. 2).
It is estimated that in 2019 more than 35 million people suffered from a drug use disorder (including alcohol) and more than 269 million had used some type of drug in the previous year (World Drug Report, 2021).
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (2014), substance use and abuse is associated with significant and cumulative impacts on both public health, security and the economy of countries around the world.
With this evident impact, various containment and prevention actions have been implemented to halt the progression and evolution of these behaviors, especially in adolescence and early adulthood (International Narcotics Control Board, 2014).
In fact, these periods are considered to be the most critical for the development of addictions and, at the same time, those in which they are most prevalent (Grant et al., 2010).
It has been shown in the literature that individuals who develop addictive disorders tend to initiate behaviors during these developmental stages (Peiper et al., 2016)
The importance of understanding, preventing and intervening in disorders associated with substance use, the focus on unrelated addictive behaviors, called behavioral dependencies, has been increasing (Kayiş et al., 2016; Pan et al., 2020).
According to the literature, objects, situations or activities capable of stimulating an individual can become addictive (Alavi et al., 2012), such as the Internet, gambling, food, physical exercise, among others (Griffiths, 1996).
It is suggested that both (i.e., substance and behavioral addictions) are similar in the characteristics that define them (e.g., salience, tolerance and dependence), that describe their development – high chronicity, higher prevalence and incidence in adolescents and young adults – as well as in the neurobiological processes that maintain them (Grant et al., 2010; Griffiths, 1996, 2005).
The literature suggests that any individual can engage in addictive behaviors.
However, it is not only the performance of the behavior that determines the emergence of addiction (McMurran, 1994).
In addition to the presence of other factors (e.g. stimulus characteristics), the individual’s susceptibility also influences the development of addiction (Svanberg, 2018).
This susceptibility is understood as the result of a multiplicity of biological, psychological and social factors (McMurran, 1994), which interact with each other and make the development of addiction more or less likely to occur (Engel, 1978; McMurran, 1994).
In the psychological domain, several of these factors, such as self-esteem and psychological symptomatology, have been identified as being associated with addictive behaviors (Dailey et al., 2020; Sanja et al., 2013; Terracciano et al., 2008).
However, in addition to these, personality has also emerged as a preponderant factor, both for substance addictions (e.g., Swendsen et al., 2002) and behavioral addictions (e.g., Andreassen et al., 2013).
There is evidence to suggest that individuals who display some type of addictive behavior and become dependent display different personality characteristics when compared to individuals who do not display the addictive disorder (Swendsen et al., 2002).
These characteristics can even be considered protective or risk factors for the development of addictive behaviors (Andreassen et al., 2013; Kashdan et al., 2005; Kayiş et al., 2016; Sanja et al., 2013).