Prevalence of gambling, study design and population of the experimental controlled study “GAPUnplugged” for the evaluation of the Unplugged program on gambling behaviours among 12-14 years old adolescents in Italy.

Introduction: Early onset of gambling behaviour poses a risk for development of problematic gambling later in life. Nevertheless, scarce studies on gambling prevention interventions were conducted on early adolescents. During the 2022/2023 school year, we conducted an experimental controlled study (“GAPUnplugged”) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Unplugged school-based prevention program with the addition of a new gambling unit in preventing gambling behaviours among 12-14 years old students. This paper aims to describe the prevalence of gambling behaviors, the study design, and the sample of participants in the study. Material and Methods: The study took place in Piedmont and Lazio Italian regions and involved secondary school students. A self-completed anonymous questionnaire was prepared for baseline and follow-up surveys. The baseline questionnaires were administered between November 2022 and January 2023 both in control and intervention group. The intervention group received then the 13 units of the “Unplugged” program with the gambling component (February-April 2023). Finally, after 4 to 8 weeks from the completion of the program, the same evaluation questionnaire was administered in control and intervention classes (May-June 2023). Results: Twenty-nine schools accepted to participate in the study. Sixty-three classes (1325 students) were allocated to the intervention arm, and 61 (1269 students) to the control arm, for a total of 124 classes and 2594 students. At baseline, 998 students of 59 classes in the intervention arm (drop-out rate 25%) and 876 students of 59 classes in the control arm (drop-out rate 31%) filled the questionnaire (1874 students of 118 classes overall). Gambling behavior at least once in the last 12 months was reported by 54.9% of students, 35.4% gambled at least once in the last 30 days, 12.4% gambled on regular basis and 29.9% gambled sporadically. Conclusions: This appears to be the first experience of evaluating a new component focused on a different risk behaviour, added to a curriculum previously shown as effective on other risk behaviours. The prevalence of adolescent gambling behaviour appears to be very high. A strengthening and enforcement of regulations and interventions preventing underage gambling are of great importance today for limiting the spread of this risk behaviour.