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Gambling and Adverse Life Events Among Urban Adolescents

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Abstract

This study explored the cross sectional association between adverse life events and gambling in a sample of 515 urban adolescents (average age 17, 55% male, 88% African American). Approximately half of the sample had gambled in the past year (51%); 78% of the gamblers gambled monthly and 39% had a gambling-related problem. On the other hand, 88% of the sample had experienced at least one life event in the past year, and those experiencing events tended to live in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The mere acknowledgement of experiencing a stressful life event in the past year (yes/no) was not associated with an increase in odds of being a gambler, with gambling more frequently, or with having a gambling problem. However, when the context of the event was considered, an association was found between directly experiencing threatening and deviant/violent types of events and frequent gambling (OR > 2). Additionally, the probability of being a gambler increased as the number of events experienced increased (aOR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.13, P = 0.013), but problems among gamblers were not associated with the number of events experienced (aOR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92, 1.11, P = 0.876). During adolescence, life events appear to be connected more with the frequency of gambling rather than with problems related to gambling.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a research grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (NICHD-NIH, HD060072-P.I. Dr. Martins). The JHU PIRC Second-Generation Intervention Trial was funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant DA11796 (P.I. Dr. Ialongo).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Community Health, University of Maryland School of Nursing, 655 W Lombard Street Ste 655A, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

    Carla L. Storr

  2. Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins, 624 N Broadway, 8th Floor, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Carla L. Storr, Grace P. Lee, Nicholas S. Ialongo & Silvia S. Martins

  3. Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Jeffrey L. Derevensky

  4. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Jeffrey L. Derevensky

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  1. Carla L. Storr
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  2. Grace P. Lee
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  3. Jeffrey L. Derevensky
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  4. Nicholas S. Ialongo
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  5. Silvia S. Martins
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Correspondence to Carla L. Storr.

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Storr, C.L., Lee, G.P., Derevensky, J.L. et al. Gambling and Adverse Life Events Among Urban Adolescents. J Gambl Stud 28, 325–336 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-011-9254-0

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