Breaking Bad: Comparing Gambling Harms Among Gamblers and Affected Others.

Li, En; Browne, Matthew; Rawat, Vijay; Langham, Erika; Rockloff, Matthew

This article examines gambling harms from both gamblers and affected others' perspectives. Participants (3076 gamblers and 2129 affected others) completed a retrospective survey that elicited information on harms they experienced from gambling across their lifetime. Their responses were analyzed through testing measurement invariance, estimating item-response theoretic parameters, calculating percentages, confidence intervals, and correlations, as well as regressions. The results indicated large commonalities in the experience of harms reported by gamblers and affected others. Further, gamblers appeared to 'export' about half of the harms they experienced to those around them. The findings also provided detailed profiles of evolving harms as problem gambling severity varies.

COMPULSIVE gambling; ITEM response theory; RETROSPECTIVE studies; STATISTICAL correlation; CONFIDENCE intervals; COMPULSIVE behavior; GAMBLING & psychology; INTERPERSONAL relations; HARM reduction

Journal of Gambling Studies, 2017, Vol 33, Issue 1, p223

1050-5350

Academic Journal

10.1007/s10899-016-9632-8