The role of parent-child relationships for adolescent attitudes and gaming and gambling – knowledge and prevention

Gambling with or without money is a threat to young people´s well-being and health.

This requires special efforts from the research community as well as from professionals who meet children and youth with gam(bl)ing problems. However, research on critical factors for adolescents’ gam(bl)ing, including gambling and computer games, is scarce.

As a result, we have a lack of knowledge of why some adolescents develop gam(bl)ing problems and what mechanisms play a role in such development.

Due to these shortcomings in research, it is also unclear which mechanisms are particularly important for the effect of the interventions we offer to young people with gaming problems today.

As parents are responsible for their children´s positive development, it is possible that parent-child relationships are of particular importance both for the development of problem gam(bl)ing, and for the effect of the interventions aimed at young people with gaming problems.The purpose of the current project is to investigate the role of parent-child relationships for adolescents’ gam(bl)ing (problems) and attitudes to gambling, and for the effect of a social intervention developed for young people with gaming problems.

The study is based on data from three research programs that focus on a) gam(bl)ing (problems) in a general population of young people, b) gambling (problems) and attitudes to gambling among adolescents in sports high schools in Skåne, and c) the effect of Relapse prevention for a clinical population of young people with gaming problems.

Through different types of data and designs, the results from this project will generate more knowledge about the role that the parent-child relationship can have for attitudes and gam(bl)ing among adolescents in different institutions, and for the effect of preventive efforts aimed at young people with gaming problems.

Such results will be a critical resource for development of preventive measures for more equal health among children and youth.