Internet gambling disorder in adolescents: Prevalence and associated factors; A cross-sectional study of 360 cases

Abstract

Introduction Gambling disorders have increased over time due to the easy availability of online games. Objectives The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of internet gambling disorder in an adolescent population and to identify associated factors. Methods It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, conducted among a sample of high school students, randomly collected in 6 schools in the region of Sfax during the month of February 2022. A pre-established form of 33 questions, including socio-demographic and family information was used. The Arabic version of the Internet Gaming Disorder-20 (IGD-20) questionnaire was used to assess online gaming activity. It is a 20-item questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree). A respondent’s score was obtained by aggregating the 20 items. The higher the score, the more severe the gambling disorder. The cut-off score for the IGD-20 is 70. A score below 50 indicates occasional use; a score between 50 and 70 indicates problematic use; and a score above 70 indicates an online gambling disorder. Results We collected 360 adolescents, 52.2% of whom were male. The mean age of our patients was 16.62 years. A total of 4.7% of the adolescents had an online gambling disorder, 26.9% had problematic use, while 68.3% were occasional users. The analytical study revealed that online video game addiction was associated with male gender (p ꞊0.003), the presence of relationship problems with parents (p ꞊0.000), and low academic achievement (p ꞊0.000). Conclusions We draw attention to the necessary debate between sensible and problematic use of new technologies and the need for longitudinal prevention in schools. Disclosure of Interest None Declared