Raising Awareness of Problem Gambling with Child Welfare Workers

Abstract

Although there has been an increase in problem gambling in the U.S., there is a lack of scholarship engaging practitioners, specifically child welfare practitioners. Child welfare practitioners may be the problem gambler’s first point of contact in the social welfare system. This exploratory study evaluated the impact of a problem gambling training intervention on child welfare workers’ capacity to detect, screen, and refer clients with gambling related problems. The results indicated that workers (N = 21) significantly increased their knowledge and recognition of problem gambling behaviors from pretest to posttest, but most of these knowledge gains were not sustained after 3 months. The motivation construct was significant across three timeframes and the behavioral items increased from posttest to 3 month follow-up, although not significant. Findings suggest that the intervention had more of an enduring change in participant’s motivation and behavior than it did on participant’s knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• child welfare
• IMB model
• knowledge
• motivation
• problem gambling
• screening

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.