Disordered gambling, or dependence and consequences: a bifactor exploratory structural equation model analysis of the problem gambling severity index

Background The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is a widely used assessment of disordered gambling. However, it has been claimed that instead of measuring a single factor of problem gambling severity, the PGSI measures two correlated factors of behavioral dependence and harms/consequences. The existing literature using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis has notable limitations that mean these accounts cannot be discriminated.