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Reliability and Validity of Three Instruments (DSM-IV, CPGI, and PPGM) in the Assessment of Problem Gambling in South Korea

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Abstract

Most research on the assessment, epidemiology, and treatment of problem gambling has occurred in Western jurisdictions. This potentially limits the cross-cultural validity of problem gambling assessment instruments as well as etiological models of problem gambling. The primary objective of the present research was to investigate the reliability and validity of three problem gambling assessment instruments within a South Korean context. A total of 4,330 South Korean adults participated in a comprehensive assessment of their gambling behavior that included the administration of the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling (NODS), the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI), and the Problem and Pathological Gambling Measure (PPGM). Cronbach alpha showed that all three instruments had good internal consistency. Concurrent validity was established by the significant associations observed between scores on the instruments and measures of gambling involvement (number of gambling formats engaged in; frequency of gambling; and gambling expenditure). Most importantly, kappa statistics showed that all instruments have satisfactory classification accuracy against clinical assessment of problem gambling conducted by South Korean clinicians (NODS κ = .66; PPGM κ = .62; CPGI κ = .51). These results confirm that Western-derived operationalizations of problem gambling have applicability in a South Korean setting.

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Notes

  1. Most Westerners ‘know’ this, even if their gambling behavior is not consistent with this knowledge.

  2. It is important to note that in the Li et al. (2012) study, 22 of the 24 items used in the final instrument (Scale of Assessing Problem Gambling) derived from existing Western-derived instruments.

  3. Questionnaires that are introduced as ‘gambling surveys’ produce artifactually high prevalence rates of gambling and problem gambling due to higher participation rates of gamblers and higher refusal rates of nongamblers (Williams and Volberg 2009, 2010).

  4. Nongamblers are excluded from the calculation of these kappa statistics.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Alberta Gambling Research Institute for their financial support of this project, the staff at Embrain for their skillful administration of the surveys, and Drs. Lee and Roh for conducting the clinical assessments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. C. N. Hilton College, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX, 77004, USA

    Ki-Joon Back

  2. Department of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Robert J. Williams

  3. College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, South Korea

    Choong-Ki Lee

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  1. Ki-Joon Back
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Correspondence to Choong-Ki Lee.

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Back, KJ., Williams, R.J. & Lee, CK. Reliability and Validity of Three Instruments (DSM-IV, CPGI, and PPGM) in the Assessment of Problem Gambling in South Korea. J Gambl Stud 31, 775–786 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-014-9442-9

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