Attitudes towards gambling in a Canadian university sample of young adults

While studies of gambling attitudes continue to grow among national adult populations and adolescents, no study to date has explored attitudes towards gambling among young adults (adults 18–25 years of age). We address this gap by exploring gambling attitudes using the Attitudes Towards Gambling Scale (ATGS) among a sample of 1,254 Canadian young adults from the University of Manitoba (n = 399 males, 32%). Results indicate that young adults are comparable to both adolescent and mature adults with respect to attitudes towards gambling, holding slightly negative feelings towards it as an activity, but feel individuals should retain the right to gamble despite personal risk. Regression analyses show that gambling, family/peer approval of gambling, and injunctive drinking norms of family and friends are the strongest predictors of favourable attitudes towards gambling. Given the strong roles of approval of gambling and drinking in young adults’ social environments, we recommend that research needs to more robustly address the normalization of multiple problem behaviours (drug use, deviance, etc.) among family and friends. We further recommend that therapeutic interventions be geared towards establishing new norms for young adults, for which group settings addressing multiple problem behaviours are especially helpful and cost-effective.