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Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting

BACKGROUND: Problem gambling traditionally is markedly more common in men than in women. However, recent data in online gamblers have indicated at least a comparable risk of problem gambling in women in this sub-group. The present study aimed to compare the characteristics of male and female moderat...

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Autores principales: Håkansson, Anders, Widinghoff, Carolina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32884371
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S248540
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author Håkansson, Anders
Widinghoff, Carolina
author_facet Håkansson, Anders
Widinghoff, Carolina
author_sort Håkansson, Anders
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Problem gambling traditionally is markedly more common in men than in women. However, recent data in online gamblers have indicated at least a comparable risk of problem gambling in women in this sub-group. The present study aimed to compare the characteristics of male and female moderate-risk and problem gamblers in online gamblers in Sweden. METHODS: In a web survey addressing online gamblers (past-year online gambling on 10 or more occasions), women and men with moderate-risk or problem gambling (n=327) were compared with respect to gambling severity, financial consequences, comorbidity, socio-demographic characteristics, and fulfilled screening items. RESULTS: Female gender was associated with psychological distress, over-indebtedness, higher problem gambling severity and with screening items indicating financial consequences and guilt, with no gender difference for the self-reported need to seek treatment for substance use problems. In the sub-group of problem gamblers, female gender remained associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSION: In a setting displaying high rates of online gambling and novel findings of a higher risk of problem gambling in women than previously seen, psychological distress appears to separate female and male problem gamblers. Given the higher level of severity and financial consequence, these findings call for screening and early intervention in female at-risk gamblers.
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spelling pubmed-74434502020-09-02 Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting Håkansson, Anders Widinghoff, Carolina Psychol Res Behav Manag Original Research BACKGROUND: Problem gambling traditionally is markedly more common in men than in women. However, recent data in online gamblers have indicated at least a comparable risk of problem gambling in women in this sub-group. The present study aimed to compare the characteristics of male and female moderate-risk and problem gamblers in online gamblers in Sweden. METHODS: In a web survey addressing online gamblers (past-year online gambling on 10 or more occasions), women and men with moderate-risk or problem gambling (n=327) were compared with respect to gambling severity, financial consequences, comorbidity, socio-demographic characteristics, and fulfilled screening items. RESULTS: Female gender was associated with psychological distress, over-indebtedness, higher problem gambling severity and with screening items indicating financial consequences and guilt, with no gender difference for the self-reported need to seek treatment for substance use problems. In the sub-group of problem gamblers, female gender remained associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSION: In a setting displaying high rates of online gambling and novel findings of a higher risk of problem gambling in women than previously seen, psychological distress appears to separate female and male problem gamblers. Given the higher level of severity and financial consequence, these findings call for screening and early intervention in female at-risk gamblers. Dove 2020-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7443450/ /pubmed/32884371 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S248540 Text en © 2020 Håkansson and Widinghoff. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php).
spellingShingle Original Research
Håkansson, Anders
Widinghoff, Carolina
Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title_full Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title_fullStr Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title_full_unstemmed Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title_short Gender Differences in Problem Gamblers in an Online Gambling Setting
title_sort gender differences in problem gamblers in an online gambling setting
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32884371
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S248540
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