Negative impacts of gambling on Asian families and communities in New Zealand

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Gamblers of East Asian Descent in Australia: A Comprehensive Review of Current Evidence

As a country with one of the highest per capita gambling losses per year in the world, and an evolving multicultural profile, Australia has become an important setting in which to examine the harms and benefits related to gambling. The Australian population includes people from East Asian cultural backgrounds who are a key demographic of interest for gambling operators planning to grow revenue. However, Australian gambling research has concentrated primarily on those belonging to the dominant cultural group. Most of the previous and limited number of studies to examine gambling among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) residents have focused on people of Chinese descent, and much of the literature is now becoming relatively old. This review examines the current evidence around cultural variations in gambling prevalence, motivations, beliefs, behaviours, and help service utilisation, focusing on gamblers with an East Asian cultural background. Numerous domains in which gambling motivations and behaviours vary across cultural groups are identified, and methodological considerations related to ethnographic gambling research are discussed. This review found that while barriers and predictors to help-seeking for CALD gamblers have been studied extensively, contemporary evidence of help service utilisation and effectiveness in Australia is lacking. Further research providing an accurate assessment of the impacts of gambling for CALD gamblers is needed to ensure that harm minimisation resources are effective for those most vulnerable to harm.

An integrative review of research on gambling and domestic and family violence: Fresh perspectives to guide future research

This paper presents an integrative review of research on domestic and family violence (DFV), including intimate partner violence (IPV), experienced by victims and perpetrators with a gambling problem. It aims to review, critique, and synthesize research on this topic to generate fresh and alternative perspectives to guide future research. Based on a systematic search of the academic literature and a targeted search of gray literature, the paper summarizes findings from empirical studies pertaining to the prevalence of perpetration and victimization, characteristics of perpetrators and victims, and explanations for this violence. Based on this review, the paper suggests several potential improvements that can be considered in future studies. These include a shift from focusing on situational violence to also include coercive control; greater sensitivity in research design and interpretation to gender differences in experiences of violence; and the need to include economic abuse as a form of DFV/IPV. Adopting a public health lens is also recommended to broaden the research focus from victims and perpetrators to also consider contextual factors. In particular, gambling research should examine the contribution of gambling products, practices, environments, and marketing to DFV/IPV and how this might be ameliorated. While research to date has drawn much needed attention to the risks that gambling presents for DFV/IPV, this review provides some suggestions for future research so that it can provide more nuanced findings to inform policy and practice.

Stakeholder views on factors influencing the wellbeing and health sector engagement of young Asian New Zealanders

INTRODUCTION In New Zealand, while the term 'Asians' in popular discourse means East and South-east Asian peoples, Statistics New Zealand's definition includes people of many nationalities from East, South and South-east Asia, all with quite different cultural norms, taboos and degrees of conservatism. In a context where 'Asian' youth data are typically presented in aggregate form, there are notable gaps in knowledge regarding the contextual determinants of health in this highly heterogeneous group. This qualitative study explored key stakeholder views on issues that would be most useful to explore on the health and wellbeing of Asian youth and processes that would foster engagement of Asian youth in health research. METHODS Interviews were conducted with six key stakeholders whose professional activities were largely focused on the wellbeing of Asian people. The general inductive approach was used to identify and analyse themes in the qualitative text data. FINDINGS Six broad themes were identified from the key stakeholder interviews framed as priority areas that need further exploration: cultural identity, integration and acculturation; barriers to help-seeking; aspects to consider when engaging Asian youth in research (youth voice, empowerment and participatory approach to research); parental influence and involvement in health research; confidentiality and anonymity; and capacity building and informing policy. CONCLUSION With stakeholders strongly advocating the engagement of Asian youth in the health research agenda this study highlights the importance of engaging youth alongside service providers to collaborate on research and co-design responsive primary health care services in a multicultural setting. KEYWORDS Asian youth; New Zealand; health research; minority health; Community and social participation.

Responsible gambling among older adults: a qualitative exploration

BACKGROUND

Responsible gambling (RG) is defined as gambling for pleasure and entertainment but with an awareness of the likelihood of losing, an understanding of the associated risks and the ability to exercise control over one's gambling activity. The current study describes a qualitative approach to explore RG among older adults (aged 60 years and above) in Singapore and reports on the cognitive and behavioural strategies employed by them to regulate their gambling.

METHODS

Inclusion criteria included Singapore residents aged 60 years and above, who could speak in English, Chinese, Malay or Tamil and were current or past regular gamblers. Participants were recruited using a combination of network and purposive sampling. Socio-demographic information on age, age of onset of gambling, gender, ethnicity, marital status, education and employment was collected. The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) was used to collect information on gambling activities and problems associated with gambling behaviour. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 25 older adults (60 years and above) who currently gambled. The data was analyzed using thematic network analysis.

RESULTS

This global theme of RG comprised two organising themes: self -developed strategies to limit gambling related harm and family interventions to reduce gambling harm. The basic themes included delayed gratification, perception of futility of gambling, setting limits, maintaining balance, help-seeking and awareness of disordered gambling in self or in others. Family interventions included pleading and threatening, compelling help-seeking as well as family exclusion order.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights the significant role that families play in Asian societies in imposing RG. Education of family members both in terms of the importance of RG, and communication of the ways in which older adults can incorporate RG behaviours including the use of exclusion in specific scenarios is important.

Gambling related family coping and the impact of problem gambling on families in Hong Kong

Despite substantial evidence that problem gambling is associated with a wide range of family difficulties, limited effort has been devoted to studying the negative impacts on family members as a result of problem gambling and how they cope and function under the impacts of problem gambling in Chinese communities. Among the very few Chinese-specific gambling-related family impact studies, none have examined how gambling-related family coping responses are related to gambling-related family impacts. Based on a sample of treatment-seeking Chinese family members of problem gamblers, this study aimed to explore: (1) the demographic characteristics and health and psychological well-being of the family members; (2) the gambling-related family member impacts (active disturbance, worrying behavior); (3) the family coping strategies (engaged, tolerant-inactive and withdrawal coping); (4) the relationship between gambling-related family member impacts, psychological distress and family coping strategies. It was hypothesized that positive significant relationships would be found between family member impacts, psychological distress and family coping strategies. From March 2011 to February 2012, a total of 103 family members of problem gamblers who sought help from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Even Centre in Hong Kong were interviewed. Results showed that a majority of family members were partners or ex-partners of the gambler with low or no income. A large proportion of participants reported moderate to high psychological distress (72.6 %), poor to fair general health (60.2 %), and poor to neither good nor bad quality of life (61.1 %). Family member impacts were positively significantly correlated to all family coping strategies and psychological distress. Tolerant-inactive coping had the strongest relationships with family member impacts and psychological distress. Strong relationships between family member impacts and psychological distress were also found. The results provide preliminary support for aspects of the stress-strain-coping-support model in the Chinese culture. It is suggested that family member-specific treatment groups targeting family coping are required to alleviate the level of negative impacts of gambling disorder on family members.