Editorial: Cognitive and Personality Variables in the Development of Behavioral Addictions in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

As part of the scientific debate on the nature of behavioral addictions, it has been shown the tendency of researchers to elaborate, for the lack of theoretical and clinical conceptualizations, evidence related to disorders by adapting the criteria for addictive disorders linked to substance abuse, assuming that there is a sort of conceptual overlap or similarity. Indeed, some researchers have observed that people characterized by behavioral addictions show symptoms related behaviors similar to those of people with substance use disorders, such as compulsive behaviors, frequent and obsessive thoughts about a particular activity, to the exclusion of other social interests’, psychological distress when the activity is reduced, reduction in social, recreational, professional, educational, and domestic activities.