Teacher attitudes towards and awareness of adolescent gambling behavior in the UK

ABSTRACT

Numbers of adolescents experiencing gambling related harm are increasing. Teachers spend a significant amount of time with students and their attitudes can make an impact on engagement in high-risk behavior. However, teachers’ awareness of, and attitudes towards adolescent gambling are under-researched; this study aimed to address this gap. 157 UK schoolteachers completed an online survey assessing their perceptions of adolescent gambling. Cochran’s-Q tests of association and regression analyses revealed that teachers perceived adolescent gambling as significantly less serious than other high-risk behaviors. Teachers also reported having significantly less frequent conversations about gambling and were less confident addressing gambling issues than other high-risk behaviors. Arguments are made for increased teacher training around problematic youth gambling. Such a strategy would be a prerequisite for the development and implementation of targeted prevention from harms.

KEYWORDS:

• Gambling
• disordered gambling
• teachers
• education
• adolescence

Ethical approval

University of Lincoln’s School of Psychology Ethics Committee. PSY181933

Disclosure statement

Amanda Roberts has received funding from the Study of Addiction (SSA) and the Gambling research Exchange Ontario (GREO). Steve Sharman has received funding from the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA), the King’s Prize Fellowship Scheme funded by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, and as part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre funding for the National Addiction Centre. Jeffrey Derevensky holds or has held multiple research grants from the The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Manitoba Gambling Foundation, Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, U.S. National Council on Problem Gambling, Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et culture (FQRSC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Raegan Murphy and Elli-Jay McNally have no conflicts to declare. No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

Preregistation statement

No preregistration was declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [AR].

Notes

1. Although the authors are aware that the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) has since been published, the DSM-IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) was used for this particular question for comparative purposes with Derevensky et al.’s (2014) original data.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Roberts

Professor Amanda Roberts is a Professor in Psychology at the University of Lincoln, with a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience from Cardiff University and previous research and lectureship positions at UK academic institutions. She has numerous multidisciplinary collaborations including an honorary research contract at the National Problem Gambling Clinic and a Research Fellowship at the Gambling Addictions Research Centre, AUT, NZ. Amanda's research interests include the evaluation of gambling addiction treatment programmes both in the community and in UK prisons and additional interests extend across topics that relate to gambling comorbidity, gambling in vulnerable populations, and gambling and interpersonal violence.

Raegan Murphy

Dr Raegan Murphy is a lecturer at University College Cork. Her interests are the nature of psychological measurement and assessment. Her substantive research domain is applied in various research contexts including intelligence assessment, psychometric scale construction and gambling. Her insights into measurement and data modelling have afforded her an understanding of basic econometrics, and statistical modelling of data in various domains.

Elli-Jay McNally

Ms Elli-Jay McNally is a Graduate Student in Psychology University of Lincoln.

Jeffrey Derevensky

Professor Jeffrey Derevensky is a Professor in School/Applied Child Psychology and Professor, Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, is Co-Director of the International Centre for Youth Gambling problems and High-Risk Behaviors, and holds multiple adjunct appointments at several universities. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the area of adolescent risky behaviours and gambling. He has been the author or co-author of three books, over 40 book chapters, in excess of 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has been the keynote speaker and has presented over 200 presentations at national and international conferences. Professor Derevensky has been invited to testify before numerous legislative committees in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. As well, Professor Derevensky and his research team have developed multiple award-winning prevention programs which are currently being used internationally. He has been the editor, co-editor or on the editorial board for numerous journals and is a frequent guest reviewer for articles for journals in the field of neuropsychology, psychology, psychiatry, education, and prevention science.

Steve Sharman

Dr Steve Sharman is an academic researcher who specialises in gambling behaviour. He has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge, where his thesis explored cognitive distortions and decision-making in gambling behaviour. He is a current Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) Griffith Edwards Academic Fellow at the University of East London, where he uses Virtual Reality to research gambling behaviour. Steve is also a Research Fellow (Gambling Studies) at the National Addiction Centre, Kings College London where he works closely with the National Problem Gambling Clinics.