Abstract
The lack of a criterion validity gold standard defining adolescent pathological gambling represents a major limitation of the adolescent gambling literature. The present study employed Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis (ROC) to examine the performance of the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA) recommended cut-point of 4 against two-proxy gold standards: self-identified need for, or receipt of, help for gambling. Logistic regression analysis examined the correlates of self-identified need for help with gambling. The sample was comprised of 12990 adolescents from Atlantic Canada whose average age was 15 years and 50% of whom were male. The SOGS-RA performed as well or better with these proxy gold standards than with proxies used in previous studies. We concluded that the proxy gold standards based on self-identified need for or receipt of help represent a pragmatic solution to the lack of an adolescent-specific definition of problem or pathological gambling. Students in grade seven and SOGS-RA scores of 4 or greater were independent predictors of self-identifying a need for help.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Canada Research Chair, a Canadian Population Health Initiative grant, and a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant MA-14706). Funding for data collection was provided in part by the provincial departments of Health in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Boudreau, B., Poulin, C. The South Oaks Gambling Screen-revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA) Revisited: A Cut-point Analysis. J Gambl Stud 23, 299–308 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-006-9039-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-006-9039-z