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Problem Gambling and Social Media: Social Psychological Study on Youth Behavior in Online Gaming Communities

The project analyzes problem gambling and social media usage from a social psychological perspective.

Background

The project collected the YouGamble 2017 Survey in March-April 2017. Respondents were Finnish young people aged 15 to 25 (N=1200). Additional YouGamble Social Media survey (N=223) was collected in April-June 2017 from Finnish social media sites. The project also collected data from the US (N=1212) and South Korea (N=1190) in the beginning of 2018.

The surveys measured problem gambling, addictive behavior, social media usage, subjective well-being and social relationships. The survey also included social psychological survey experiment using a vignette design. The hypotheses were pre-registered to Open Science Framework in March 2017.

Goal

Youth gambling is an increasing concern worldwide, and young people are also active social media users. The aim of this project is to analyze the effect of online group processes and content characteristics on young peoples reactions to gambling-related messages.

The project offers a valuable cross-national perspective that helps to understand gambling in a wider cultural and societal context. Results give an important insight for gambling policy makers as well as health professionals working with young problem gamblers.

Funding source

The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies

Contact persons

Atte Oksanen

Professor of social psychology

atte.oksanen [at] uta.fi

+358 50 318 7279