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Young Adults’ Stories of Gambling in a Research Situation: A Narrative Inquiry

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Abstract

Narrative research is rarely undertaken in the field of gambling research. For this reason, the present study used narrative methods to explore young adults’ personal accounts of gambling in a research situation. It had three interrelated aims: namely (i) to delineate the gambling-related identities of young adults; (ii) to examine how these gambling-related identities were constructed; and (iii) to identify the use of narrative techniques that contributed to narrative credibility. Study participants were young adults aged 18–24 and living in Tasmania. Data were collected through telephone interviews and written stories. A reduced data set comprising one interview transcript and two written stories was selected for the purposes of intensive analysis and publication. The analysis shows how participants who supplied this data set explained and justified their involvement in gambling, managed their identities and endeavoured to construct a shared reality. Some methodological issues arising from the study are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a UTAS GAMBLING RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAM grant which was funded by the Gambling Support Program, Department of Health and Human Services, Tasmania. The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tasmania.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Tasmanian Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number H0012593, and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

Conflict of Interest

This research was funded by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Tasmania, Grant number P0018055, UTAS Research Office project number 104070.

Dr. Janet Patford, Mr. Peter Tranent and Dr. Christine Gardner declare they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, 3010, Australia

    J. Patford

  2. School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

    P. Tranent

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

    C. Gardner

  4. 240 Napier St., Fitzroy, VIC, 3065, Australia

    J. Patford

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Patford, J., Tranent, P. & Gardner, C. Young Adults’ Stories of Gambling in a Research Situation: A Narrative Inquiry. Int J Ment Health Addiction 13, 225–240 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9524-z

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