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Annual of social work, Vol. 18 No. 1, 2011.

Original scientific paper

GAMBLING OF ADOLESCENTS IN ZAGREB

Dora Dodig orcid id orcid.org/0000-0002-4767-637X ; Department of Behavioural disorders, Faculty of education and rehabilitation, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Neven Ricijaš orcid id orcid.org/0000-0001-8107-8448 ; Department of Behavioural disorders, Faculty of education and rehabilitation, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

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Abstract


Foreign research and domestic practical experience indicate an increase in gambling among adolescents in Croatia. As a prerequisite for a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, it is necessary to gain insight into the gambling habits of adolescents and their level of risk, which was the main objective of the pilot project "Gambling of adolescents in the city of Zagreb". This paper presents a part of the research conducted in March 2010 in three Zagreb secondary schools (a gymnasium, a four-year vocational program, and a three-year vocational program) with the sample of 261 students (M = 58.2%, F = 41.8%). The participants were aged 14 to 18 (Mage=16.51; SDage=1.15). The following instruments were used in the research: Basic Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, Gambling Habits Questionnaire (Dodig, Ricijaš, 2010), South Oaks Gambling Scale (SOGS-RA, Winters, Stinchfield and Fulkerson, 1993) and DSM-IV-J (Fisher, 1992) criteria for pathological gambling.
The results revealed that a large number of Zagreb's high school students had gambled at least once in their lives (75%), and that there was a significant proportion of those who met the criteria for risk (20-26%) or problem (8-12%) gambling. There are gender differences in habits and risks of gambling, which is consistent with the current knowledge and research in other countries, while differences according to the type of school do not exist.
Further research will examine the attitudes of young people towards gambling and correlation with some personality and behaviour characteristics. In addition, exploring the phenomenon through a systematic research is the first step towards prevention and addressing the problem as well as an incentive for socially responsible gambling.


Keywords

gambling habits; risk assessment; Zagreb adolescents

Hrčak ID:

68698

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/68698

Publication date:

2.5.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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