My paper A mutual support group for young problem gamblers has been published by the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. The paper is available as an “online first” publication, klick here.
Abstract
A Swedish mutual support group for young problem gamblers is described and discussed. During the study period, 116 weekly meetings occurred, usually involving six to ten participants; in total, 69 problem gamblers (66 male and three female), aged 17–25, and 23 partners and friends attended the meetings. Half the gamblers had problems with Internet poker, one fifth with electronic gambling machines, and the rest with other forms of gambling and computer gaming. Nearly half the problem gamblers participated in under five mutual support meetings, while just over a third attended ten or more meetings. Gambling problems ceased or lessened among most participants in ten or more meetings. In some cases, attending just one or a few meetings had a positive impact on the problems. This mutual support group provides relatively effective help to adolescents and young adults with gambling problems, offering a valuable alternative and complement to professional treatment.
This is a companion article to A Swedish Mutual Support Society of Problem Gamblers, which recently was published by the same journal. The first article outlines the history of Swedish mutual support societies of problem gamblers and describes the way of working of one of them, while the second article focuses on one specific mutual support group and discusses its effectiveness.
My research on mutual support groups for problem gamblers have been presented in a book in Swedish (2010): Syna korten: En insats mot spelproblem bland unga. The book focuses on gambling problems among adolescents and young adults and covers also preventive efforts targeting these age groups.
