Although a number of gambling preventive initiatives have been realized with adolescents, many of them have been developed in absence of a clear and explicitly described theoretical model. The present work was aimed to analyze the adequacy of a model to explain gambling behavior referring to gambling-related cognitive distortions (Study 1), and to verify the effectiveness of a preventive intervention developed on the basis of this model (Study 2). Following dual-process theories on cognitive functioning, in Study 1 we tested a model in which mindware gap, i.e., susceptibility to the gambler's fallacy, and contaminated mindware, i.e., superstitious thinking, were the antecedents of gambling-related cognitive distortions that, in turn, affect gambling frequency and problem gambling. Participants were 306 male adolescents (M age = 17.2 years). A path analysis indicated that cognitive distortions have a mediating role in the relationship that links probabilistic reasoning fallacy and superstitious thinking with problem gambling. Following these findings, in Study 2 we developed a school-based intervention aimed to reduce gambling-related cognitive distortions acting on the above cited mindware problems. A pre-and post-test design -with a 6 months follow-up -was performed with 34 male adolescents (M age = 16.8), randomly assigned to two groups (Training and No Training), and their baseline equivalence was verified. A Mixed 2 × 2 ANOVA attested a significant Time X Group interaction, indicating a significant reduction of the cognitive distortions from pre-test to post-test only in the Training group. The follow-up attested to the stability of the training effects and the reduction of gambling frequency over time. These findings suggest that prevention strategies should address mindware problems, which can be considered as predictors of gambling-related cognitive distortions.

In the field of adolescent gambling prevention, there is a lack of intervention studies reporting and assessing training courses for the intervention providers. The present work fills this gap by realizing a dissemination study inside the PRIZE program aimed at modifying a set of cognitive protective factors and affective risk factors. The purpose of this work was twofold: To develop and evaluate a training course with the intervention providers (Study 1), and to assess the short- and long-term effects of the intervention itself (Study 2). The training course was delivered to 44 health professionals (32 females, Mage = 39.34 years). Results showed a significant increase of correct knowledge about gambling and a significant reduction of their susceptibility to probabilistic reasoning biases. Participants also actually learnt the main competencies to conduct the educational activities, they were satisfied for the training course received, and they felt high levels of self-efficacy. The intervention was implemented with 1894 high school students (61% males; Mage = 15.68 years). In the short term, we found a significant increase of adolescents’ correct gambling knowledge, random events knowledge, and probabilistic reasoning ability, and a significant decrease of superstitious thinking, monetary positive outcome expectation, and gambling-related erroneous thoughts and fallacious behavioral choices. In the long-term, a significant decrease of gambling frequency, gambling versatility, and gambling problem severity was obtained. Overall, this work highlights the importance to train prevention program providers in order to optimize the effectiveness of large-scale gambling intervention programs towards adolescents.

Sebbene sia documentata una maggiore prevalenza del gioco d'azzardo nei ragazzi, tale comportamento sembra interessare sempre più le ragazze. Tuttavia sono relativamente pochi gli studi sulla specificità del gambling nelle adolescenti e mancano lavori di ricerca che abbiano utilizzato strumenti per il comportamento di gioco d'azzardo invarianti per genere. Scopo di questo lavoro era analizzare le caratteristiche del comportamento in adolescenti italiane (Studio 1) e testare un modello in cui sensation seeking e pensiero superstizioso, attraverso la media-zione delle distorsioni cognitive sul gioco d'azzardo, influenzano il comportamento problema-tico di gioco d'azzardo (Studio 2). Per realizzare tale scopo, è stata utilizzata la Gambling Be-havior Scale-For Adolescents, uno strumento che è risultato invariante per genere negli adole-scenti italiani e che permette di rilevare sia le caratteristiche comportamentali che i sintomi di comportamento problematico secondo il DSM-5. Al primo studio hanno partecipato 1527 ado-lescenti femmine (età: M = 15.86; DS = 1.81) ed al secondo 552 adolescenti femmine (età: M = 15.99; DS = 1.34). I risultati hanno confermato che le ragazze prediligono giochi di tipo non strategico, giocano prevalentemente con i familiari, ed intorno agli 11 anni conoscono il gioco d'azzardo. Il 7% delle giocatrici è a rischio di sviluppare problematiche e il 3% ha problemi di gioco. Il modello di mediazione ipotizzato è stato inoltre confermato. Tale modello può quindi essere considerato per la messa a punto di interventi di prevenzione genere-specifici.

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