Gambling Among Young People, 837 kB

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Introduction
By prevention the author means preventive measures, for example measures aimed at preventing illness
(universal or primary prevention), reducing the risk of an illness escalating or recurring (selective or
secondary prevention) or rehabilitation or treatment of illness (indicated or tertiary prevention). In an
ideal world there would be measures for all these levels that had been evaluated as well as prevention
programmes for adolescent pathological gamblers. Research on the prevention of pathological gambling
among adolescents is, however, still extremely limited. Only two studies on primary prevention
measures were found in the literature search along with a study on treatment. Only four boys were included
in this single study on treatment and there was no control group. Hence, the study does not allow for
any conclusions to be drawn with regard to treating adolescent pathological gamblers (112).
Instead, current knowledge on the prevention of pathological gambling in young people has to be
retrieved from research on a subject close to the one at hand, for example the treatment of adult pathological
gamblers and the prevention of other addictions in young people. In addition, some authors have
described a number of possible treatment models based on their own practical experience of treating
adolescents together with theoretical knowledge. However, these models have not been tested for their
effectiveness in accordance with current scientific methods. Knowledge the author gained during study
visits to two treatment clinics in Montreal, Canada, is also presented in this section.
Evaluated primary preventive (universal) measures
A couple of preventive measures aimed at enhancing knowledge about gambling and its risks has
been carried out among lower secondary and upper secondary adolescents in the Province of Quebec
in Canada. One of these studies is an experimental study by Ferland, Ladouceur and Vitaro. It tested
the impact of an information video on common misconceptions about gambling, which aimed at
enhancing knowledge about gambling and its risks. The study compared the impact of the information
video with a practical informative lesson on gambling, with a combination of video and lesson
and finally with a control group that were not subject to any intervention measures at all. The results
showed that the knowledge about gambling of the pupils in the three intervention groups was enhanced
and they were better able to identify
typical misconceptions about gambling
than those who had not been subject to
an intervention measure at all. The best
results were achieved in the group with
the combined intervention measure,
i.e. both video and lesson. However,
there was no follow-up and hence
we do not know whether the results
remained over time, nor do we know
whether there was an impact on the
gambling behaviour, in other words the
gambling habits and any gambling problems
of the adolescents (113).
In another rather more extensive
prevention intervention, again carried
out by Ladouceur and Gaboury in
Canada, the focus was on cognitive
distortions to do with games and gambling.
134 pupils of different ages in
Quebec City were given information on
gambling, gambling problems and the
gaming market. They were also taught