NCJ Number
218626
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Health Volume: 10 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2007 Pages: 390-397
Date Published
May 2007
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prevalence and factors leading to gambling problems and health risk behaviors among college athletes in the United States.
Abstract
Results indicated that male student athletes (62.4 percent) had significantly higher past-year gambling prevalence than did female student athletes (42.8 percent). The DSM-IV Gambling Screen identified 4.3 percent of males and 0.4 percent of females as problem/pathological gamblers. Interesting findings were that when the level of problem gambling increased, so to did the prevalence of substance use, gorging/vomiting, and unprotected sex. Other findings revealed that pathological gamblers had significantly more drug/alcohol-related problems than non-gamblers and social gamblers. The findings revealing multiple problems in the lives of pathological gambling student athletes, including unsafe sex practices and substance abuse, underscore the importance of developing multi-faceted intervention programs to address all these problems simultaneously. As targeted intervention programs are developed, it will be important to conduct periodic evaluations of whether the programs are effective at helping participants eliminate problem behaviors. Participants were 20,739 student-athletes who were randomly sampled using a computer program that sampled institutions at random and selected 1 to 3 sports at each NCAA member institution for inclusion in the study. The Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) at each NCAA member institution administered the self-report survey to the participants, which gathered information related to past year prevalence of gambling and sports wagering. Data analyses were performed in SPSS and included chi-square calculations, ANOVAs, and Scheffe post hoc tests. Tables, figure, references