A Prospective Study of Mental Health in Relation to Online Gambling One-year Later in a Large Cohort of Adolescents in Canada.

PURPOSE: Concerns have increased about online gambling among adolescents. Poor mental health may place adolescents at increased risk of engagement in online gambling, however, longitudinal evidence is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine how mental health relates to engagement in online gambling one-year later in a large cohort of adolescents.

METHODS

We used 2-year prospective survey data from 26,818 students in Grades 9 to 11 (secondary III-IV in Quebec) attending 121 secondary schools in four Canadian provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec) who participated in the COMPASS study during the 2017/18, 2018/19, and/or 2019/20 school years. Generalized linear mixed models were used to examine the likelihood of online gambling one-year later by baseline mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, psychosocial well-being, emotional dysregulation), controlling for student sex, grade, race, weekly spending money, and baseline online gambling.

RESULTS

Online gambling in the past 30-days was reported by 2.1%, 2.3%, and 2.5% of students in study years 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20, respectively. In the combined model, students reporting high depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to report online gambling one-year later (OR = 1.58, 95%CI = 1.19, 2.09) relative to those reporting low symptoms, controlling for baseline online gambling, the other mental health measures, and sociodemographic characteristics.

CONCLUSION

This study provides prospective evidence that high depressive symptoms may place adolescents at an elevated risk of future engagement in online gambling. It may be worthwhile targeting students with high depressive symptoms in preventative efforts.