[Spanish adaptation of the Gambling Advertising Impact Scale for adolescents].

UNLABELLED: Media pressure from gambling advertising has reached worrying levels. It constitutes a risk to the mental health of young people and adolescents by promoting a favourable attitude towards gambling, a higher frequency of gambling and a perception of greater accessibility. Currently, there is no instrument available to assess the impact of gambling advertising.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to adapt and validate the Impact of Gambling Advertising Scale (IGAS).

DESIGN

The IGAS scale was translated from English ensuring its linguistic, conceptual and metric equivalence. The psychometric properties were then tested. SITE: Comunidad Valenciana (España).

PARTICIPANTS

1724 adolescents with a mean age of 16.52 years (SD=.759).

INTERVENTION: Self-administered, paper-based questionnaire in a single measure.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Advertising impact, and gambling intention, severity and availability.

RESULTS

Internal consistency and two-half reliability were good, Cronbach's α=.782 and α=.70, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis concluded that the Spanish version replicates the original three-dimensional version. Convergent validity analyses showed direct and significant relationships with different aspects of gambling behaviour, and other predictors.

CONCLUSION

The adapted version of the IGAS is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of the impact of advertising on adolescents. The scale is a useful instrument for the diagnosis of risk level and the evaluation of preventive interventions.