Betting the future? : A correlation analysis about youth gambling

The aim of the study was to examine the association between different life areas and youth’s engagement in gambling. The life areas focused in the study were relationships with parents, school, friends and mental health. The study used cross-sectional data from the Stockholm Survey collected in 2020 among students in the ninth grade in elementary school and in the second grade of upper secondary school in Stockholm (n=4495). The results were analyzed using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. The results showed that youth whose parents had more insight into their child’s life were less likely to have engaged in gambling during the past 12 months. Parental permission to gamble showed positive correlations to youth having gambled within the last 12 months. Having a more negative school environment and more experiences of psychosomatic symptoms also showed positive correlations to youth gambling within the last 12 months. The study concludes that (1) increased parental presence and restrictions regarding parent’s acceptance of gambling can reduce the risk of youth gambling, (2) creating a positive school environment could reduce youth gambling, (3) adults, such as parents and teachers, could have a key role in detecting youth gambling since gambling may manifest as psychosomatic symptoms.