Patterns of Gambling Activities and Gambling Problems Among Italian High School Students: Results from a Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to provide an estimate of the prevalence of gambling among Italian adolescents and a description of their patterns of gambling activities (PGAs) using a latent class analysis on 13 different types of games. A nationwide sample of 10,959 Italian high school students was recruited in 2013. We assessed problem gambling using the South Oaks Gambling Screen: Revisited for Adolescent (SOGS-RA) scale. Approximately half (50.6%) of students reported gambling at least once in the previous year; 5.0% of them were problem gamblers and 9.1% were at-risk gamblers according to their SOGS-RA scores. Eight PGAs were identified, among which heavy players (1.7% of students) could be classified as problem gamblers and broad skill players (2.0%) and lotteries & sports players (2.4%) as "at-risk" players. These high-risk classes were consistently associated with risky behaviours in terms of substance use, school performance, money spent on gambling and family environment; the other five classes identified low-risk players associated with safe behaviours. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify PGAs among Italian adolescents. Problem gamblers are not a homogeneous group in terms of patterns of gambling activities and are associated with different risk factors, among which environmental factors, such as parents' gambling attitude and behaviour, deserve special attention. The acknowledgment of such patterns and risk factors could be useful in developing sensible public policies addressing prevention strategies and regulatory instruments.

Gambling Subgroups among Korean Out-of-school Adolescents

“…Gambling activities of out-of-school adolescents were classified into three subgroups (RG, IGG, and BG), whereas prior studies classified their subjects into 4~8 subgroups [8,14,19,20]. This result is consistent with the findings of a prior study on early adulthood gambling, which delineated three subgroups of social gamblers, problem gamblers, and pathological gamblers [21].…”

Prevalence of problem gambling in an employed population in Brittany, France

“…Calado and Griffiths showed in a review that all national surveys concluded that there were more gamblers than non-gamblers 1) ; for example, 75% of males and 71% of females had gambled in the previous year in the UK 2) , and 74% of the general population in France had gambled in the previous year 3) . Social gambling defined as gambling without loss of control and without damages, may become a pathological gambling in a minority of cases 4,5) . Pathological gambling is a behavioral addiction first characterized in the DSM-IV by a loss of control over gambling which then becomes the subject's only interest, prevailing over all her or his other activities, causing serious harmful consequences to social, family, or financial life.…”

“…Problem gambling (PG) is more likely to occur among men [1][2][3]8) , with psychiatric disorders 8) , or individuals of extreme age [9][10][11][12] . Environmental factors, such as level of income, socio-economic integration, or social support and working status have an influence, both on PG prevalence worldwide and on an individual's gambling trajectory between social gambling and GD 1,4,8) . Income is more associated to engagement with gambling rather than problem gambling 13) .…”

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“…Social gambling may become a gambling disorder (GD) in a minority of cases 7 8. GD is defined as a persistent, maladaptive pattern of gambling resulting in clinically significant impairment or distress, according to the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 9.…”

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