A Longitudinal Examination of Young People ’s Gambling Behaviours and Participation in Team Sports

AbstractThis paper develops and expands upon social identity theory as an explanation for gambling among youth engaged in team sport. Analysing longitudinal data for over 4500 20-year-olds from theGrowing Up in Ireland study, reveals that online gambling increased from 2.6 to 9.3% between 17 and 20  years in the cohort, with the increase driven by males. A statistically significant positive association is uncovered between playing team sports and regularly gambling, as well as online gambling behaviour, independent of socio-demographic and other risk factorsfor males butnot for females. The findings provide support for a dose –response like effect for males, where a longer period of participation in team sports is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in gambling behaviour compared to shorter periods. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed.
Source: Journal of Gambling Studies - Category: Addiction Source Type: research