AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS IN ADOLESCENT GAMBLING

Youth problem gambling has become an emerging public health issue in many countries. Disordered gambling is a multidimensional condition involving bio-psycho-social determinants including psychological processes, individual personality characteristics, social and familial influences, and environmental stressors. Studies based on this multidimensional assumption are still limited. For instance, some limitations of the current gambling literature are that: (i) there is relatively little research on modifiable adolescent behavioural and social environmental factors contributing to the development of problem gambling (Scholes-Balog, Hemphill, Dowling, & Toumbourou, 2014); (ii) few studies have investigated the mediation effects of environment on person-gambling relationship and vice versa (Ariyabuddhiphongs, 2013); (iii) although impulsivity has been consistently associated with gambling, the psychological mechanisms by which impulsivity might influence gambling disorder are not clearly understood (Kraplin et al., 2014). According to the conceptual framework for the development of gambling in youth (Barnes, Welte, Hoffman, & Dintcheff, 1999) and the conceptual framework of harmful gambling (Abbot et al., 2013), the current research project aimed to address this gap in the literature by focusing on the interaction between socio demographic-, individual/psychological-, socialization-, and contextual-factors in determining problem gambling in adolescents and young adults. Study 1: The first study investigated the role of socioeconomic indicators of the welfare state and family practices in explaining probable problem gambling during adolescence. A multilevel model was used to evaluate the impact of the parenting (regulation, caring and monitoring/knowledge: individual-level) and country (GDP, expenditure on public health, family/children benefits: country-level) influences on adolescent possible problem gambling in a representative sample of students living in nine European countries. Data were drawn from the 2011 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) Study (n = 29952; 53% girls; 16-year-old students). Students who perceived more parental monitoring/knowledge and caring reported less involvement in possible problem gambling. Moreover, students who perceived stronger parental regulation were more likely to be possible problematic gamblers. At the country level, expenditure on public health was negatively associated with possible problem gambling. Study 2: Among parenting practices influencing adolescent gambling in the first study, the second study focused on the protective effect that parents who are knowledgeable about youth activities could have in preventing or hindering youth gambling, with the aim of elucidating some of the pathways responsible for this association. Data were drawn from the ESPAD®Italia2012 (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) study which is based on a nationally representative sample (n = 19573; 54% girls; age, M = 17.11 years, SD = 1.43). In study 2, a path analysis was used to test an integrative model linking parental knowledge about their offspring's whereabouts with adolescent gambling, while evaluating the mediating effects of gambling-oriented attitudes (adolescents' own gambling approval; risk-perception of gambling; and descriptive norms on gambling shared with friends). Results showed that adolescents who perceived higher levels of parental knowledge were more likely to disapprove of gambling and had higher awareness of its harmfulness, which in turn were negatively related to gambling frequency. They were also less likely to perceive their friends as gamblers, which in turn was also negatively related to gambling frequency. Studies 3-4: The third and fourth study investigated how gambling oriented attitudes (e.g., risk and benefits perception of gambling) and decision-making processes may explain gambling outcomes by studying the psychological mechanisms that underlie the influence of impulsivity on problem gambling. Although impulsivity traits have been linked to problem gambling, less is known about psychological mechanisms that explain the relationships between impulsivity traits and problem gambling. The purposes of Studies 3-4 were to examine a theoretical model linking impulsivity traits and gambling problems taking into account the role of gambling motives (study 3) and decision-making processes (study 4). Participants comprised students enrolled in public high schools or universities. In Study 3 (n = 594; 73% male; mean age = 19.92 years; SD = 2.91), young people who tend to act rashly in response to extremely positive emotions showed higher coping and enhancement motives, which in turn were positively related to gambling problems. In addition, sensation seekers were more likely to have higher levels of enhancement motives, which in turn were also positively associated with gambling problems. Specific associations between impulsivity traits, gambling motives and gambling problems were significant only in young people who perceived lower risks and higher benefits of gambling. In Study 4 (n = 986; 64% male; mean age = 19.51 years; SD = 2.30), young people who tend to act rashly in response to extreme moods were more likely to have lower levels of deliberative decision-making and higher preferences for immediate/small rewards, which in turn were positively related to gambling problems. In conclusion, taken together, the findings of the four studies suggest that gambling frequency and gambling problems are the outcome of both personal and contextual characteristics (Lussier, Derevensky, Gupta, & Vitaro, 2014). Consistent with the conceptual framework for the development of gambling in youth (Barnes et al., 1999) and the conceptual framework of harmful gambling (Abbot et al., 2013), these results may be regarded as an original example of how individual characteristics and social context may interact to affect individual behaviour. These results might also have important implications for gambling prevention programs and future social welfare policies.