Gambling Among Young People, 837 kB

later in life. Adolescents happily gamble together with their friends as a spare time activity and as a
way of experimenting with limits and risk-taking, where the adolescents’ lack of experience in limiting
and controlling their behaviour may contribute to a rapidly developing problem (76).
Differences between girls and boys
Two to five times as many boys are problem or pathological gamblers compared to girls. This can partly
be explained by the fact that boys gamble more than girls and that they tend to choose risky games,
which in turn increases the risk of problem/pathological gambling. A further possible explanation
might be the fact that the screening tools have not been adapted to measure girls’ attitudes to gambling,
gambling patterns and consequences of gambling, and have therefore not been able to highlight
any gambling problems. Some of the studies presented here have not studied girls’ gambling problems
at all, for example the Vitaro studies on impulsivity and risk-taking behaviour or the Swedish
study from Östersund.
The studies that include girls indicate, however, that there are differences between the
problem/pathological gambling of girls and boys. Barnes’ studies from Buffalo in the USA indicated
that there are differences in the links between different behavioural problems in
girls/women and boys/men, and also in the risk factors behind the development of
these problems. For boys/men there was a link between consuming too much
alcohol or alcohol abuse and gambling too much. This was a link that
was only found in girls who were impulsive and
where parental control was poor. This
study also indicated that having
criminal friends increased the
risk for girls developing a
gambling problem later
on, but not boys.
Summary
The links between various behavioural problems like crime, alcohol/substance abuse and problem/
pathological gambling are still unclear and there is not enough research on the subject. Also there are
not enough longitudinal studies examining which factors at an early age have an impact on later gambling
habits and any gambling problems. Risk factors of the development of problem/pathological
gambling are among others to as a child and as a teenager behave impulsively (for boys), to have
friends who gamble, to have friends who are problem/pathological gamblers, to have parents who
introduce them to gambling and parents who gamble a lot, above all if they do so together with their
children. Further risk factors are having parents who are problem/pathological gamblers and having
money to spend. The risk of developing a gambling problem seems to be greater for boys. On the other
hand, there are very few if any studies on gambling problems among girls.
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