Parental influences and social modelling of youth lottery participation

Objective. The present study sought to investigate the relationship between perceived parental lottery involvement and the bearing this has upon youth lottery participation. Participants. One thousand seventy-two youth, 10-18 years of age participated from 20 elementary and nine high schools throughout the province of Ontario, Canada. Measurements. Measuring Youth Lottery Participation and Playing Behaviour Questionnaire and the DSM-IV-MR-J Revised to screen for youth pathological gambling. Findings. Youth reported playing all forms of lottery tickets with 77% reporting that their parents purchase scratch tickets, lottery draws (50%), and sports tickets (23%) for them. Parental purchases of lottery tickets for their children increased by level of gambling severity. Participants with significant gambling problems perceived higher parental participation in the lottery compared to non-gamblers and social gamblers. The majority of participants reported that their parents were aware of their lottery involvement and were not afraid of getting caught purchasing lottery tickets in spite of legal prohibitions. Conclusion. The results suggest youths' perception of parental involvement with the lottery plays an important role in the initiation and maintenance of lottery participation for youth. Given that youth report receiving lottery tickets from their parents, it is clear that the lottery is perceived as an innocuous form of gambling. Public awareness programmes and education of this issue is critical. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.