Jones Christopher M, Noël Benjamin
1Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Germany.
2Institute of Exercise Training and Sport Informatics, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
J Behav Addict. 2021 Jun 18;10(3):412-21. doi: 10.1556/2006.2021.00034.
The sports betting market has been growing rapidly over the last years, as have reports of problematic gambling behavior associated with betting. Due to the well-documented gambling problems of famous athletes and the betting supportive nature of many sports-related environments, athletes have been highlighted as a potential group at-risk for problematic sports betting. However, there currently remains a lack of research on individual-level athlete-specific risk-factors or mechanisms that might contribute to the development and perpetuation of betting-related problems. Here, we examine the influence of two potential risk-factors on sports betting behavior and problems: erroneous beliefs and athletes' emotional involvement.
201 athletes with different levels of expertise completed a newly developed scale to assess both factors. Participants were sampled from the general German population, predominantly male (83.08%) and on average 29.52 (SD = 11.05) years old. We use principal components analysis to detect patterns of covariation, potentially due to the proposed underlying latent factors, and regression analyses to test associations of these factors with betting behavior and problems.
We find that athletes' emotional involvement was strongly associated with betting problems whereas erroneous beliefs were not. However, distorted cognitions/beliefs were associated with higher volumes and more frequent betting activities.
This might contribute to betting problems in the long run. These results highlight athletes' emotional involvement and erroneous beliefs as potential targets for future intervention and prevention efforts.
在过去几年中，体育博彩市场迅速增长，与博彩相关的问题赌博行为的报道也日益增多。鉴于著名运动员存在赌博问题的记录翔实，且许多体育相关环境对博彩持支持态度，运动员被视为体育博彩问题的潜在高危群体。然而，目前对于可能导致与博彩相关问题的发展和持续存在的个体层面特定于运动员的风险因素或机制仍缺乏研究。在此，我们考察两个潜在风险因素对体育博彩行为及问题的影响：错误信念和运动员的情感卷入。
201名具有不同专业水平的运动员完成了一项新开发的量表，以评估这两个因素。参与者从德国普通人群中抽取，主要为男性（83.08%），平均年龄29.52岁（标准差 = 11.05）。我们使用主成分分析来检测协变模式，这可能归因于所提出的潜在潜在因素，并使用回归分析来检验这些因素与博彩行为及问题之间的关联。
我们发现运动员的情感卷入与博彩问题密切相关，而错误信念则不然。然而，扭曲的认知/信念与更高的投注量和更频繁的投注活动相关。
从长远来看，这可能导致博彩问题。这些结果凸显了运动员的情感卷入和错误信念是未来干预和预防工作的潜在目标。
