Appendix B
Gender Differences for Adolescent and Young Adult Gamblers in Florida
To examine gender differences for adolescents and young adults, regression analyses was used. The number of yes responses to the DSM and SOG Items was used as the Dependent Variable (Varies from 0-20, Mean = .53 s.d. = 1.7, with 83.8% of cases did not have a yes response to any question). Motives for gambling were used as Independent Variables. Factor analysis of problem gamblers only—yielded 5 factors.
♦ Factor 1—Escape Loneliness, Distraction, Worthy Cause, Power, Feel Good
♦ Factor 2—Win money, hobby
♦ Factor 3—Peer pressure, impress friends, curiosity
♦ Factor 4—Feel High, Personal Services
♦ Factor 5—Excitement, socialize, around people
Pattern Matrix—Factor Analysis—Factor Loadings—five factor solution
Factor
1 2 3 4 5 TO ESCAPE LONELINESS OR BOREDOM? .707
TO DISTRACT YOURSELF FROM EVERYDAY PROBLEMS? .679
TO SUPPORT WORTHY CAUSES? .552
FOR A SENSE OF POWER OR CONTROL? .469
TO FEEL GOOD? .421
TO WIN MONEY? -.930
AS A HOBBY? -.399
BECAUSE OF PEER PRESSURE? -.760 -.343
TO IMPRESS FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS? -.733
OUT OF CURIOUSITY? -.474
TO FEEL HIGH? -.826
FOR PERSONAL SERVICES FROM THE STAFF AT GAMBLING LOCATIONS? .323 -.598
FOR EXCITEMENT OR CHALLANGE? VERY IMPORTANT, SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT, OR NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT? -.356 .492 IN THE PAST YEAR, WOULD YOU SAY GAMBLING TO SOCIALIZE WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY WAS VERY IMPORTANT, SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT .432
TO BE AROUND OR WITH OTHER PEOPLE? .312 .337
FOR ENTERTAINMENT OR FUN? Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization.
a Rotation converged in 38 iterations.
b. Only cases for which DSM past year 3 categories = 2 Problem gambler are used in the analysis phase.
Five new measures were created from these factors (reliability coefficients, Cronbach’s alphas all greater than .95)
Substance abuse was used as a second Independent Variable—A simple summed measure of the 11 questions asking for the number of days use cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, etc., days in trouble with police because of drinking, drugs, etc. (44.8% didn’t have any days, the mean was 105 days, s.d. 198, median = 2, range from 0 to 2053, possible high 11 X 365=4015)
HYPOTHESES—
Test for different models for gender X age groupings. Test for value of adding substance abuse to the model
Statistical Model—four separate Linear Regressions, all five motive factors entered in a block, followed by substance abuse in the second block with number of SOGS/DSM-IV items as the dependent variable Tests
Anova—all sig.
Tested for sig. of betas. R-square for model itself
Males < 22 (N = 433) Regression equation—r-square = .44 w/o substance abuse, with substance abuse 45% (explaining 44% of the variance).
Betas below for the equations of y = a + bx1 + bx2…..
Number of DSM-IV/SOGS items = .54 (Factor 2-Win Money/Hobby)
- .52 (Factor 3-Peer Pressure/Impress Friends/Curiosity) + .11 (substance abuse)
This means that for young males it is relatively simple—if we know how much he says he gambles to win money and his scores on peer pressure, we can predict with relative accuracy (44%) his likelihood of scoring high on the DSM-IV/SOGS items. Substance abuse adds only a small predictive value to the equation— and when it is added the sign of the beta for peer pressure changes to a negative value.
Females < 22 (n = 294) Regression equation—r-square model w/o substance abuse = .51 with substance abuse =.52 (explaining 53% of the variance). Betas are below
Number of DSM-IV/SOGS items = 1.49 (Factor 1-Escape Loneliness/ Distraction/Worthy Cause/Power/)
- 1.84 (Factor 4-Feel high/Personal services
+ .64 (Factor 3-Peer pressure, impress friends, curiosity) - .12 (substance abuse)
Young females are a bit more complex than young males in that escaping loneliness/distraction is an extremely strong predictor of score on SOGS/DSM-IV items and peer pressure almost twice as important as for males, but motive to feel high is negatively associated with the score. Young women who gamble to feel high are likely to have low SOGS/DSM-IV scores. Also note that substance abuse is negative, rather than positive as with males, for these scores when we control for the motives for gambling for females. Also note that this model is a better predictor (.51 vs. .44) than for males.
Males > 22 (n = 296) Regression equation—r-square = .25% of the variance.
+ .17 (Factor 1—Escape Loneliness, Distraction, Worthy Cause, Power, Feel Good) + .15 (Factor 2—Win money, hobby)
+ .13 (Factor 3—Peer pressure, impress friends, curiosity) + .12 (Factor 4—Feel High, Personal Services),
Older males are much more complex—all five factors predict to the SOGS/DSM-IV score and no one factor is much greater than the other. Unlike with the younger men, however, we do not get any more predictive value with adding the substance abuse variable.
Females > 22 (N = 302) Regression equation—r-square = .25 (explaining 24% of the variance) Number of DSM/SOGS items =
.20 (Factor 1—Escape Loneliness, Distraction, Worthy Cause, Power, Feel Good)
+ .18 (Factor 5—Excitement, socialize, around people) + .14 (Factor 2—Win money, hobby)
+ .14 (Factor 4—Feel High, Personal Services)
Unlike younger females, those over age 22, look pretty much like ma les over age 22, but unlike males over 22 and females under 22, factor 3-peer pressure is not significant, in fact, far from it. Also, like males over 22, substance abuse values do not add any predictive value to the equation for predicting the SOGS/DSM- IV counts.
In summary, young males and females under 22 are quite different in what predicts high SOGS/DSM-IV scores. For males, it is a belief they will win money and substance abuse. For females it is a need to gamble to escape/distract themselves, for a worthy cause/power. Most interesting, females who are substance abusers/need to feel high are likely to have low SOGS/DSM-IV scores. Therefore, there is a need to be very careful with distinguishing messages for males and females—note how they react differently to peer pressure.
Older males and females are quite similar in what predicts SOGS/DSM-IV scores. All of the factors are relatively equal and substance abuse does not provide any predictive value over gambling motives for these scores.