Original title: Social Exposure to Gambling and Gambling Involvement Among 4176 Italian Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study
Researchers surveyed 4,176 Italian students aged 14–17 about gambling and whether people in their social circles gambled often. Just over half had gambled at least once; among those students, about one in five gambled at least monthly. Knowing a friend who gambled often was linked to a higher likelihood of regular gambling, even after accounting for relatives and acquaintances. The study shows a link, but because it measured people at one point in time, it cannot show that friends caused someone to gamble.
Imagine a teenager deciding how often to join a card game. It can be hard to separate their own choice from what they see relatives, friends, and acquaintances doing. In this paper, those circles are the people around each student, and the researchers find that regular gambling is more common among students who know habitual gamblers in more of those circles.
The findings point to friends and other people around teenagers as part of the context in which regular gambling occurs. Prevention efforts may need to consider these social ties, not only individual characteristics.
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot establish whether social exposure leads to regular gambling or whether regular gamblers are more likely to know other habitual gamblers. The abstract reports data from Italian students aged 14–17 and does not establish whether the findings apply to other populations.
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Social Exposure to Gambling and Gambling Involvement Among 4176 Italian Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study — Giansanto Mosconi, Giandomenico Silvestri, Serena Barello et al. — International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction — doi:10.1007/s11469-026-01734-z
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.