Recollected usage of legal youth gambling products: Comparisons between adult gamblers and non-gamblers in the UK and Australia

Harms from Other People's Gambling: Associations with an Individual's Own Gambling Behaviours, Health Risk Behaviours, Financial Problems, General Health, and Mental Wellbeing

This study aimed to explore relationships between being an 'affected other' (AO) and an individual's own gambling, health risk behaviours, financial problems, poor general health, and low mental wellbeing. A cross-sectional survey using representative and supplementary convenience samples was undertaken with 1234 residents of a British Island aged 16 + years. Being an AO was measured as having a partner or relative who has been gambling regularly in the past 12 months. PGSI was used to assess gambling severity. Health risk behaviours included: poor diet, low physical activity, daily smoking, and binge drinking. Other measures included experiencing financial problems, poor general health, and low mental wellbeing. Analyses were performed using χ2 and binary logistic regressions. 11.0% of participants were AOs. AOs were more likely to gamble at at-risk/problem-gambling levels and experience financial problems compared to those who were not affected others. The significant relationship between being an AO and low mental wellbeing was mediated by experiencing financial problems. The relationship between being an AO and engaging in two or more health risk behaviours was no longer significant after controlling for sociodemographics and an individual's own gambling. The relationship between being an AO and poor general health was no longer significant after controlling for sociodemographics, health risk behaviours and an individual's own gambling. AOs experienced risks to health and wellbeing, with findings not limited to AOs specifically with a relationship to an individual with problem-gambling. Therefore, support for AOs should be more widely available, aiming to address AOs' needs holistically.

Childhood Use of Coin Pusher and Crane Grab Machines, and Adult Gambling: Robustness to Subjective Confidence in a Young Adult USA Sample

Gambling as a youth is a risk factor for experiencing gambling-related harm as an adult. Most youth gambling research focuses on illegal engagement with age-restricted products, but youth can also gamble legally, by for example betting with friends, or via coin pusher and crane grab machines. Research has associated recollected rates of usage of these machines as a child with adult gambling participation and problems, but only in the UK and Australia, and has not tested for robustness to subjective confidence. The present study conceptually replicated these prior studies by investigating the association between recollected childhood use of coin push and crane grab machines, and adult gambling behavior, in a young adult USA sample. Participants rated their subjective confidence to test if individual differences in recollection biases provided a better account for any observed associations. Results found high recollected engagement rates for both coin pusher (87.2%) and crane grab machines (97.0%), and 5 of the 6 tested associations between youth machine usage and adult gambling engagement and problems were significant and in the hypothesized direction. Rates of subjective confidence were on average high (83.3 and 89.2 on a 0 to 100 scale), and generally did not interact with participants' recollected rates of machine use. These findings extend prior research on potential public health concerns around children's legal engagement with coin pusher and crane grab machines to a new country, the USA.

Childhood use of coin pusher and crane grab machines, and adult gambling: A conceptual replication of Newall et al. (2021)

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Youth gambling research mainly focuses on the illegal use of age-restricted machines, but coin pusher and crane grab machines are gambling machines that can be used by people of any age in the UK, and are also in use internationally. Previous cross-sectional evidence has associated recollected childhood usage of these machines with adult gambling participation and levels of problem gambling amongst adult gamblers. We attempted to conceptually replicate the findings of one of these studies (Newall et al., 2021), while addressing some limitations of that study.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey of 2,000 UK-based and -born participants aged 19-24 years. The measures were participants' recollected usage of coin pusher and crane grab machines as a child, whether they had gambled in the past 12-months or not, and the PGSI for past 12-month gamblers.

RESULTS

Overall, 5 of 7 tested associations were significant and in the hypothesized direction. Logistic regression models showed that adult gamblers were more likely to recollect using, and used at higher levels of frequency, coin pusher and crane grab machines, than non-gamblers. Then, negative binomial regression analysis showed that adults who recollected using crane grab machines at higher levels of frequency showed more gambling-related problems.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that childhood usage of coin pusher and crane grab machines may act as an underappreciated risk factor for the development of gambling-related harm across the lifespan. This information may be considered for further youth gambling research and policy.

Global scientific production regarding behavioral addictions: An analysis of the literature from 1995 to 2019

•

There is an increase in behavioral addiction research over the last 25 years.

•

The most considerable increase has been in gambling and ITC related problems.

•

Western countries are more interested in gambling and Asians in ITC related problems.

Aims

The increase in scientific interest in so-called behavioral addictions has been growing in recent years. For this reason, the aim of our study is to use bibliometric techniques to identify where and with what intensity these behaviors are being studied.

Methods

In October 2020, we conducted a search in the Web of Science Core Collection using a search equation designed to retrieve the articles that combine the general keywords of addiction with specific terms of the 7 groups of behavioral addictions analyzed (gambling; gaming; information and communication related disorders; and the so-called somatic addictions related to sex, shopping, food and sports). Articles published from 1995 to 2019 were included.

Results

We found 9199 distinct articles. Gambling was the most studied addiction, but Information and Technology Communication-related disorders (ITC) had the highest growth rate over the span of five five-year periods, followed by gaming and food addiction. In general, there was a growth rate of 130.46% in the research on behavioral addiction issues. By geographical region, the United States was the most productive country regarding all addictions, but Oceania had the highest proportion of publications per million population. There was a clear interest among Asian countries in studying problems related to ITC and gaming problems.

Conclusions

The importance of the seven behavioral addictions analyzed according to their growth rate in scientific research fields over the last 25 years was confirmed in our study. In addition, the differences in interest by geographical region show us that it is important to delve deeper into cultural particularities to better understand this phenomenon.