Pacific Islands Families Study: Young Adult Gambling Behaviours and Associated Risk Factors

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

In 2000, a cohort of 1,398 Pacific infants, born in South Auckland, was recruited into the Pacific Islands Families (PIF) longitudinal study. In this study, the PIF cohort, aged 22 years, was surveyed about their gambling behaviours. This study follows previous surveys (at ages 9, 14 and 17 years) to examine gambling behaviour across time.

The Pacific Islands Families Study involved 470 22-year-old Pacific youth and found that their gambling participation was low and generally infrequent. 

The most popular activity was informal betting with family and friends, followed by gaming machines. For those that gambled the prevalence of risky gambling and experiencing gambling harms was high. 

Daily or weekly online gaming at age 14 significantly predicted gambling harms at age 22, so did engaging in multiple gambling activities and drinking alcohol at age 17. Few gender or ethnic differences were noted.

Associations with mental health and risk factors for risky gambling and gambling harms were the same as for the general population. 

Key findings included:

Gambling participation

1. about one-third of participants had gambled in the past year on an average of three gambling activities, and the gambling was generally infrequent. This was similar to when participants were aged 17 years old.
2. casino gaming machines, club gaming machines, and casino table games had the highest average monthly spending ($55.2, $51.1, and $50.4 respectively).
3. at age 22, while still most commonly gambling with friends (50%) or family (46.7%), more of them are gambling alone (21.3%) compared to at age 17 (5.2%)
4. at age 22, 13.2% of all participants gambled in a risky manner (this was 37.7% of those who gambled). The percentage of participants classified as problem gamblers increased with increasing age (4.7% at age 17, 6.8% at age 22), though results are not directly comparable due to different screens used in the surveys.

Gambling harm

5. about one-third of participants who gambled experienced between one and eight different harms from their gambling, mostly commonly feeling of regret.
6. about one-third of participants who gambled were worried about their gambling and two-fifths sought informal help from someone close to them. The percentage who had a lot of worry about their gambling doubled from 4.4% (age 17) to 8.6% (age 22).
7. risky gambling was statistically associated with less perceived quality of life and increased problematic behaviours such as aggression, intrusion1, and rule breaking2.  Gambling harms were statistically associated with rule breaking behaviour and depression.
8. 8.7% experienced negative consequences (mainly occasional worry) due to someone else’s gambling, with more than half of the ‘someone else’ being parents.

Predictors of gambling harm

9. daily or weekly online gaming at age 14 significantly predicted gambling harms at age 22, so did engaging in multiple gambling activities and drinking alcohol at age 17. 

Read the report

Pacific Islands Families Study: Young Adult Gambling Behaviours and Associated Risk Factors (PDF, 2 MB)

Note: The report is published on the AUT Gambling & Addictions Research Centre website.

MIL OSI