Short-Term Effectiveness of the Youth Gambling Prevention Program “Who Really Wins?”—Results from the First National Implementation

As a response to significant adolescent gambling involvement, a Croatian team of researchers and practitioners developed a universal, comprehensive, evidence-based youth gambling prevention program called “Who Really Wins?”. This study presents the results on its short-term effectiveness following the first national implementation in 18 Croatian cities, with a total of 629 high school students (66.5% male) who completed the program. A design with two measurement sessions (pre-test and post-test) was used to explore the short-term effects of the program on gambling-related knowledge and cognition, frequency of gambling, and various socio-emotional skills. The results showed significant effects when it comes to knowledge, cognitive distortions, and the frequency of sports betting and playing lottery games. Furthermore, the program had no harmful effects on any of the measured variables. The results are interpreted in terms of methodological challenges in measuring effects, possible improvements of the program, and implications for future evaluation research.

Gambling Prevention Mobile Applications: Understanding the Inclusion and Use of Behaviour Change Techniques

Online gambling is emerging as a significant health behaviour of concern at a population level. Mobile applications (apps) are a popular tool to target change in health behaviour. Behaviour change techniques (BCTs) can be included within such apps to change relevant psychological mechanisms along established pathways, yet the content of apps targeting gambling problems specifically is not currently known. The purpose of the review was to identify the BCTs included in gambling prevention apps. Apps were downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in October 2020. Apps were included if they related to gambling problems, were freely downloadable, and available in English. Once downloaded, two researchers independently coded the apps in November 2020 using the behaviour change technique taxonomy version 1 (Michie et al., 2013). The screening led to forty apps meeting the inclusion criteria (12 Apple App Store, 28 Google Play). The analyses identified 32 BCTs (20 Apple apps, 28 Google Play apps), with apps including between 0 and 9 BCTs (mean = 2.82, median = 2). The BCTs included most frequently were “3.1. Social support (unspecified),” “2.3. Self-monitoring of behaviour,” and “7.4. Remove access to the reward.” The review provides important information on the BCTs used in apps developed to reduce gambling-related problems. A limited number of BCTs were adopted within apps. Developers of apps seeking to develop effective gambling reduction products should draw upon a greater variety of BCTs.

Our Voices Matter: Using Lived Experience to Promote Equity in Problem Gambling Prevention

Purpose of Review The field of problem gambling has been historically disconnected from the community experience of gambling and people of color, leading to a lack of integration of those with lived experience into programming. The aim of this article is to describe community-centered efforts to prevent and mitigate harm from problem gambling in Massachusetts—including a pilot program, the Massachusetts Ambassador Project, which is grounded within public health and lived experience frameworks. Recent Findings To engage Massachusetts communities in problem gambling prevention, planning processes were conducted to develop culturally appropriate prevention strategies. One of the recurrent themes was the desire of men in the substance misuse recovery community to share their knowledge with others, specifically, men of color who experience racism and health disparities. This finding informed the development of the Ambassador Project, a novel, peer-based, community-centered, and culturally responsive approach for men of color who have a history of substance misuse to engage other men of color in problem gambling prevention. Two organizations pilot tested the project and reached 4388 individuals. The pilot led to several findings in the design and implementation of related projects. Lessons are shared in three categories: structure, support, and implementation. Summary This article demonstrates an innovative approach to connect the field of problem gambling prevention to the community experience, using a public health and social justice lens. Others in the field should acknowledge the disconnect between problem gambling and the lived experience of those disproportionately impacted by creating opportunities for community voice to be at the center of programming.

The prospective effect of purpose in life on gambling disorder and psychological flourishing among university students

Background and aimsGambling disorder (GD) is a mental disorder with a relatively higher prevalence in university students compared to adolescents and adults. Its reciprocity with mental being indicators, such as psychological flourishing, would be expected, but prior to this study had not yet been empirically examined. In addition, the predictive value of purpose in life (PIL) on university students' GD and psychological flourishing also remained unknown. This 1-year longitudinal study was the first to test the potential bidirectional relationships among PIL, self-reported GD symptoms, and psychological flourishing.MethodsIn this study, a total of 283 university students (39.6% females; age = 18–27 years, M = 20.47, SD = 1.15) completed an anonymous questionnaire at both baseline and a year later in a follow-up study.ResultsThe results of our cross-lagged analysis did not show the hypothesized reciprocity between GD symptoms and psychological flourishing (P > 0.05). However, PIL significantly predicted fewer GD symptoms (β = −0.23, P < 0.001) and higher levels of psychological flourishing (β = 0.30, P < 0.001) in the follow-up study. Moreover, psychological flourishing predicted PIL a year later.ConclusionThe findings demonstrate the potential efficacy of purpose/meaning oriented interventions in gambling prevention and in well-being promotion programs.