Prevention of problem gambling : a school-based intervention : final report

Abstract

The current generation of North American youth are the first to have been raised in an environment of extensive legalized and government-sanctioned gambling. Perhaps as a consequence, the prevalence of problem gambling in North America is highest in adolescents and young adults. Campaigns to increase community awareness of problem gambling have been undertaken in several jurisdictions. However, systematic school-based programs are lacking, and the few published evaluations of these programs have obtained equivocal results. The purpose of the present research was to design, implement, and evaluate a schoolbased prevention program in an attempt to prevent problem gambling. The nature and content of the curriculum was derived from existing programs and a careful study of what was known to be effective in other primary prevention programs.