Short-Term Effectiveness of the Youth Gambling Prevention Program “Who Really Wins?”—Results from the First National Implementation

Dora Dodig Hundric, Sabina Mandic and Neven Ricijas
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Dora Dodig Hundric: Department of Behavioral Disorders, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Sabina Mandic: Department of Behavioral Disorders, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Neven Ricijas: Department of Behavioral Disorders, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: As a response to significant adolescent gambling involvement, a Croatian team of researchers and practitioners developed a universal, comprehensive, evidence-based youth gambling prevention program called “Who Really Wins?”. This study presents the results on its short-term effectiveness following the first national implementation in 18 Croatian cities, with a total of 629 high school students (66.5% male) who completed the program. A design with two measurement sessions (pre-test and post-test) was used to explore the short-term effects of the program on gambling-related knowledge and cognition, frequency of gambling, and various socio-emotional skills. The results showed significant effects when it comes to knowledge, cognitive distortions, and the frequency of sports betting and playing lottery games. Furthermore, the program had no harmful effects on any of the measured variables. The results are interpreted in terms of methodological challenges in measuring effects, possible improvements of the program, and implications for future evaluation research.

Keywords: adolescents; youth gambling; prevention; evaluation; implementation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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