Learning to gamble: early gambling experiences among young people in Denmark

Abstract

This article presents results from the first phase of a longitudinal qualitative study of gambling among young people in Denmark. The longitudinal study is designed to capture the trajectories of young gamblers and to explore how social and cultural factors and processes impact on young people's gambling careers. The first stage of analysis places a special emphasis on young people's introduction to gambling and the social contexts of these early gambling experiences. Theoretically, this first study is guided by a symbolic interactionist approach. We conclude that early experiences with gambling are socially mediated and that significant social contexts such as the family and peer groups form important contexts of these early experiences. Our evidence suggest that becoming engaged in gambling is a social process involving a transfer of skills and knowledge in which novices learn how to play and to attribute specific meanings to gambling. Overall, our findings indicate that young people start gambling not because of purely individual characteristics or deviant motivations but through social processes within significant social networks. Implications for prevention and further research are briefly discussed.

Keywords:

• youth gambling
• social networks
• learning processes
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank three anonymous referees for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Funding

The authors received financial support for the research from the Danish Council for Independent Research – Social Science (Forskningsrådet for Samfund og Erhverv) [grant number 2102-07-0001].

Notes

1. The methodological approach, including sampling frame, interview schedule, and topic guides for the Scottish study, was shared with researchers involved in the Danish one, in order to facilitate the comparisons for future analysis.

2. Following Braun and Clarke (2006), this procedure involved the following stages: familiarization with the data, generation of initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: The authors received financial support for the research from the Danish Council for Independent Research – Social Science (Forskningsrådet for Samfund og Erhverv) [grant number 2102-07-0001].