Abstract
The alleged incidence of addiction to fruit machine gambling among children in the U.K. has highlighted the need for a measure to define and count pathological gambling in children. The DSM-IV criteria, which are being refined to diagnose pathological gambling in adults, was adapted for use with pre-adult gamblers. The resulting DSM-IV-J criteria were tested using a questionnaire survey on a sample of 467 schoolchildren aged between 11 and 16 years. Those children who were defined as “probable pathological” gamblers by the DSM-IV-J index were significantly more likely to be involved in behaviours hitherto associated with dependency, than were the control group. DSM-IV-J appears to be a major advance in the discrimination of pathological gambling in children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashdown, J. (1987).Young people and gaming machines. Unpublished manuscript. Education Welfare Office, Dawlish, Devon, U.K.
Barham, B. & Cormell, M. (1987).Teenage use of amusement arcades in Bognor Regis. Bognor Regis: WSIHE.
Centre for Leisure Research (1990).Playing the machines: A study of leisure behaviour. Edinburgh: Author.
Fisher, S.E. (1991). Governmental response to fruit machine gambling in the U.K.: Where do we go from here?Journal of Gambling Studies, 7, 217–248.
Graham, J. (1988).Amusement machines dependency and delinquency Home Office Research Study No. 101. London: H.M.S.O.
Griffiths, M.D. (1990). The cognitive psychology of gambling.Journal of Gambling Behavior, 6, 31–42.
Huff, G. & Collinson, F. (1987). Young offenders, gambling and video game playing.British Journal of Criminology, 27, 401–410.
Huxley, J. & Carroll, D. (1991).Survey of fruit machine gambling in adolescents. London: The Children's Society.
Lesieur, H.R. (1988). Altering the DSM-III criteria for pathological gambling.Journal of Gambling Behavior 4, 38–47.
Lesieur, H.R. & Rosenthal, R.J., (1991). Pathological gambling: A review of the literature (prepared for the American Psychiatric Association task force on DSM-IV committee on disorders of impulse control not elsewhere classified).Journal of Gambling Studies, 7, 5–39.
Moran, E. (1987).Gambling among schoolchildren: The impact of the fruit machine. London: National Council on Gambling.
National Housing and Town Planning Council (1989).Gambling machines and young people. London: Author.
Rands, J. & Hooper, M. (1990).Survey of young people's use of slot machines within the Sedgemoor District in conjunction with Somerset Youth Association. Unpublished manuscript. Somerset: Author.
Rosenthal, R.J. (1989). Pathological gambling and problem gambling: Problems in definition and diagnosis. In H. Shaffer, S.A. Stein, B. Gambino, & T.N. Cummings (Eds.)Compulsive gambling: theory, research and practice, (pp. 101–126). Lexington, MA, Lexington Books 1989.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The author would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a Research Studentship Grant. The author would also like to thank Henry Lesieur Ph.D. and Mark Dickerson Ph.D. for their helpful comments in the design stage of this research.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fisher, S. Measuring pathological gambling in children: The case of fruit machines in the U.K.. J Gambling Stud 8, 263–285 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014653
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014653