A new study has linked childhood stress to adult problem gambling behavior, further blurring the nature v. nurture debate.

A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study involved 54 young adults aged 20 to 23 who participated in an earlier study when they were eight years old. That earlier study dealt with stress hormones, and the individuals selected for the followup study were an equal mix of kids from either the least or most stressed groups.

The kids who reported chronic and high levels of early life stress (ELS) had experienced deeply traumatic events, such as severe abuse or the violent death of a parent. The researchers wanted to see what effect this history had on the high-stressed group’s decision-making.

To determine whether the high ELS subjects’ brains handled this process differently than the low-stress group, the study asked participants to complete a series of gambling-themed tasks while magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) gear measured their brain activity.