Moving into gambling: Preliminary
results from a qualitative
longitudinal study
Søren Kristiansen, PhD
Aalborg University
samf-prodekan@adm.aau.dk
Trends in youth gambling
research literature
• Focus on individual risk factors: Gambling problems among youths are
often associated with poor school performance (Winters et al. 1993);
alcohol, tobacco and drug use (Gupta & Derevensky 1998), impulsivity
(Nower et al. 2004); erroneous cognitions (Delfabbro & Thrupp 2003) and
irrational beliefs (Emerson et al. 2007).
• Gambling problems among youth populations is significantly more
prevalent compared to adults. (Kristiansen & Jensen 2011; National
Research Council 1999; Shaffer & Hall 2001), however:
• The majority of children and youngsters have tried to gamble and do so for
social and recreational reasons and report no related negative experiences
(Di-Cicocco-Bloom & Romer 2011; Michaud 2006).
• Few longitudinal studies, mostly large scale surveys
An apparent contradiction: Socially oriented
gambling behavior and an individually
focused research paradigm
In addition, we know very little about how
peer groups, family and community factors
affect the gambling behaviors of current
generations of adolescents and young adults
Research aim and questions
• Aim: To integrate (1) a conception of gambling
as a primarily social phenomenon with (2) a
dynamic and sequential approach to the
investigation of risk factors
• Q1: Under what social circumstances do
young Danes become engaged in gambling?
• Q2: What roles do social contexts play in
initiating child and adolescent gambling?
Theoretical approach
• H. Becker’s (1953) learning theory (+ career concept):
An individual will be able to use marihuanna only when
he goes through a process of learing to conceive of it as
an object which can be used this way. Learn to smoke
to produce real effects, learn to recognize effects and
connect them with drug use and learn to enjoy the
perceived sensations (p.241-42).
• Symbolic interactionism: How is gambling percieved,
what are the experiences of gambling, what does
gambling mean in the worlds of Danish adolescents
Method and data
• Interview data from a qualitative longitudinal
prospective study of gambling behaviors among
Danish adolescents aged 12-20 years.
• Part of a panel study with three waves of
interviews with young gamblers (classified by
SOGS-RA) with a 10-12 month frequency.
• One interview wave has been completed, 52
young Danes have been interviewed August December 2011
• Verbatim transcripts, data management and
analysis supported by Nvivo 9.0
Main findings – the family path
• Spontaneous parent invitations
”Sometimes my Dad just says: would you like to check the lotto coupon?”
• Observing the tricks of trade
”When I was 12 I was at a family party at my Grand dad’s place and my older
cousin had brought a pack of cards. I was watching the game and when one
of them left the table I took his place and played his cards. That’s how I
learned it.”
• Symbol of adult recognition
”I was about 13 when I first tried to play Oddset with my Dad… I was
really happy and proud that he would let me try it, it was his money
not mine that we wagered.”
Main findings – the family path
• Gambling initation is a social process
-joyfull social interaction
-internalization of norms and values
• Gambling initation is a gendered process
(male and female stereotypes)
• The typical starting arena for younger age
groups
Main findings – the peer group path
• Gambling and sports (sports betting, male
universe, sense of community, sharing and
developing knowledge of teams, scoring
statistics etc)
”If there is a top match football game in TV, we often arrange to
watch it together. Then we go down to the gas station and buy
some candy and coke. We enjoy the game and place our odds”
•
Social benefits outweights financial loss
”When you gamble with your friends and your odds do not work
then of course one gets disappointed but we always have a nice
time together anyway”
Main findings – the peer group path
• Gambling initiation related to sense of
belonging to social community
• Gambling online as a social activity and
development of ”online” friendships
• The starting arena for older age groups
Conclusions – the role of
social contexts
• Adolescent’s gambling participation is associated
with level of gambling among their
friends/families
• The conception of gambling is redefined in social
processes (from ”risky business” to entertaining
leisure pursuit).
• Transfer of skills/knowledge and attitudes
towards gambling
• The social aspect of gambling is the main initial
driver – not the content or the rules of the game
Questions for further investigation
1. The direction of causal loops: Do peer groups change
individual’s gambling behaviors or do individuals’s
gambling behaviors change their friendship relations?
2. Friendship relations/family relations and availability
are significant factors in terms of gambling initiation.
But what about gambling continuation?
- actual gambling experiences (wins/losses)
- sense of social community
- chasing
- friendship relations/family relations
-…
Expected use of Nvivo features in
strenghthening longitudinal approach
• Coding (themes, statements)
• Attributes (for unchanging personal
information)
• Formation of sets of participants (T1, T2, T3)
-to scope queries/searches in data
-to display/indicate changes between waves of
interviews (i.e.matrix tables)
…
Acknowledgements
• Research Assistant: Karina V. Johannesen
• Research Funding: The Danish Council for
Independent Research