Abstract
The relative influence of perceived familial addictive behaviors and personal gambling behaviors on adolescents’ self-perceptions of gambling problems was examined. Students from five high schools in Connecticut (N = 3,886) were surveyed. Of those between the ages of 14 and 17 who scored two or more on the South Oaks Gambling Screen—Revised for Adolescents (n = 532; 72% male; 43% Caucasian), 14.3% reported having a current or past problem with gambling. Wagering larger amounts in a single day, gambling on a daily basis, and perceived presence of a family member with a gambling problem were associated with increased odds of self-perception of a gambling problem. Thus, adolescents who may be less likely to be identified for prevention efforts (due to lack of engagement in high stakes gambling or the real/perceived absence of a problematic gambler in the home) appear less likely to perceive a gambling problem. To advance prevention and treatment strategies, the apparent discrepancy between adolescents’ self-perceptions and objective reports of problem gambling behaviors warrants further investigation.
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Notes
The term severity is used here to denote the number of consequences reported rather than how frequently these consequences are experienced or how disruptive they are to the individual’s level of functioning. Additionally, although the term problem gambling is sometimes used interchangeably or loosely with pathological gambling in the literature, a growing body of research suggests that these two constructs are not synonymous. Recently, Ladouceur, Ferland, Poulin, Vitaro, & Wiebe, (2005) found a 92.5% disparity between the number of youth in their sample that were identified as problem gamblers on the SOGS-RA (n = 93) and the number who met diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling during a clinical interview (n = 7). Though the gambling-related negative consequences experienced by youth who screen positive as problem gamblers may not cross the diagnostic threshold in all cases, it does not necessarily mean that the difficulties experienced by this group are benign.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge constructive comments made by Drs. Kelly D. Brownell and Teresa A. Treat to earlier versions of this manuscript. This manuscript was written in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Preliminary results from this study were previously presented at the International Symposium on Problem Gambling and Co-Occurring Disorders in Mystic, Connecticut in October, 2004. The current study was supported in part through NIDA (R01 DA019039), the Veteran’s Administration (MIRECC VISN1 and REAP), and Women’s Health Research at Yale.
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Cronce, J.M., Corbin, W.R., Steinberg, M.A. et al. Self-perception of Gambling Problems among Adolescents Identified as At-risk or Problem Gamblers. J Gambl Stud 23, 363–375 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-006-9053-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-006-9053-1