Exploring gambling harm awareness and its relationship with problem gambling severity: A nationally representative study of UK gamblers

IF 3.6 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

Addictive behaviors Pub Date : 2025-07-18 DOI:10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108435

Christy Milia , Ian P. Albery , Marcantonio Spada , Briony Gunstone , Antony C. Moss

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

From a public health perspective, raising awareness of gambling-related harms may activate a sense of personal threat that can encourage positive behaviour change and reduce experienced harm. This study sought to determine existing levels of gambling harm awareness, both in total and by specific harm types, across a nationally representative UK sample of 10,157 adult gamblers (4,951 female). It also explored the relationship between gambling harm awareness and problem gambling severity, after controlling for various demographic variables and gambling motives. Participants were recruited via an online panel survey and provided self-reports of past-year gambling participation, motives, problem gambling severity, and awareness of different types of harms. The harm awareness measure used a prompted vs. unprompted cueing methodology and framed harms as either betting- or gambling-related based on a previously reported semantic distinction. Results showed that prompting significantly increased the number of harms reported, while harm framing did not. Regardless of condition, participants reported greater awareness of resource harms (e.g., financial difficulties) compared to health and relationship harms, and a quarter of the sample did not report any type of betting/gambling harm. Based on the results of a hierarchical linear regression, gambling harm awareness explained significant variability in problem gambling severity scores. Increased gambling severity scores were associated with greater awareness of health harms and decreased gambling severity scores were related to greater awareness of resource and relationship harms. These findings raise concerns about the overall effectiveness of current public health efforts in increasing harm awareness and suggest the need to broaden their focus to support individuals of varying risk levels in recognising and addressing a wider range of gambling-related harms.

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探索赌博危害意识及其与问题赌博严重性的关系：一项对英国赌徒的全国代表性研究

从公共卫生的角度来看，提高对与赌博有关的危害的认识可能会激发一种个人威胁感，从而鼓励积极的行为改变并减少所经历的伤害。这项研究试图确定现有的赌博危害意识水平，无论是总体上还是具体的伤害类型，在全国范围内具有代表性的10,157名成年赌徒（4,951名女性）中。在控制了各种人口变量和赌博动机之后，它还探讨了赌博危害意识与问题赌博严重程度之间的关系。参与者是通过在线小组调查招募的，他们提供了过去一年参与赌博的自我报告，动机，问题赌博的严重程度，以及对不同类型危害的认识。危害意识测量使用提示与非提示提示方法，并根据先前报道的语义区分将危害定义为与赌博相关或与赌博相关。结果表明，提示显著增加了报告的伤害数量，而伤害框架没有。无论条件如何，与健康和关系危害相比，参与者报告对资源危害（例如，财务困难）的认识更高，四分之一的样本没有报告任何类型的赌博/赌博危害。基于层次线性回归的结果，赌博危害意识解释了问题赌博严重程度得分的显著变化。赌博严重程度分数的增加与健康危害意识的增强有关，赌博严重程度分数的降低与资源和关系危害意识的增强有关。这些发现引起了人们对目前公共卫生工作在提高危害意识方面的总体有效性的关注，并建议需要扩大其重点，以支持不同风险水平的个人认识和解决更广泛的与赌博有关的危害。

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来源期刊

Addictive behaviors 医学-药物滥用

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

4.50%

发文量

283

审稿时长

46 days

期刊介绍： Addictive Behaviors is an international peer-reviewed journal publishing high quality human research on addictive behaviors and disorders since 1975. The journal accepts submissions of full-length papers and short communications on substance-related addictions such as the abuse of alcohol, drugs and nicotine, and behavioral addictions involving gambling and technology. We primarily publish behavioral and psychosocial research but our articles span the fields of psychology, sociology, psychiatry, epidemiology, social policy, medicine, pharmacology and neuroscience. While theoretical orientations are diverse, the emphasis of the journal is primarily empirical. That is, sound experimental design combined with valid, reliable assessment and evaluation procedures are a requisite for acceptance. However, innovative and empirically oriented case studies that might encourage new lines of inquiry are accepted as well. Studies that clearly contribute to current knowledge of etiology, prevention, social policy or treatment are given priority. Scholarly commentaries on topical issues, systematic reviews, and mini reviews are encouraged. We especially welcome multimedia papers that incorporate video or audio components to better display methodology or findings. Studies can also be submitted to Addictive Behaviors? companion title, the open access journal Addictive Behaviors Reports, which has a particular interest in ''non-traditional'', innovative and empirically-oriented research such as negative/null data papers, replication studies, case reports on novel treatments, and cross-cultural research.