Il gioco d'azzardo nelle adolescenti: analisi del comportamento e dei fattori di rischio attraverso la Gambling Behavior Scale - For Adolescents.

Although a greater prevalence of gambling is documented among boys, such behavior seems to increasingly interest girls. However, studies investigating the specificity of gambling behavior among female adolescents are still few and there are still missing researches using gender-invariant instruments to measure gambling behavior in adolescents. The goal of this work was to analyze gambling behavior in Italian female adolescents (Study 1) and to test a model in which sensation seeking and superstitious thinking affected problem gambling through the mediation of gambling-related cognitive distortions (Study 2). To that goal, the Gambling Behavior Scale-For Adolescents has been employed. This scale has been found to be invariant across genders and it allows to measure both behavioral gambling characteristics and pathological gambling symptoms according to the DSM-5. Participants were 1527 female adolescents (age: M = 15.86; SD = 1.81) in Study 1 and 552 female adolescents (age: M = 15.99; SD = 1.34) in Study 2. Results confirmed that girls prefer non-strategic gambling activities and gamble predominantly with their family. It emerges also that they gamble for the first time at about 11 years. Seven percent of them are at-risk gamblers and 3% shows a disorder. The hypothesized mediation model has been also confirmed. Thus, this model can be usefully taken into account to define gender-specific preventive interventions.