McCarthy Simone, Thomas Samantha L, Pitt Hannah, Warner Elyse, Roderique-Davies Gareth, Rintoul Angela, John Bev
Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Health Promot J Austr. 2023 Apr;34(2):284-293. doi: 10.1002/hpja.608. Epub 2022 May 11.
Gambling poses a global threat to public health due to its far-reaching impacts. Research has demonstrated a ripple effect of harmful gambling on social network members and broader communities. While researchers have documented extreme harms associated with an affected other, limited research has qualitatively investigated how women describe their concerns about the gambling of a social network member, and any subsequent negative impacts on their own lives.
An online panel survey was conducted with women aged 18 years and older, who gambled at least once in the last 12 months, and resided in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. This paper focused on the open text responses of a subsection of the sample (n = 136) who reported being negatively impacted by someone else's gambling. The study utilised reflexive thematic analysis to interpret the data.
Results indicated that women were concerned about the gambling behaviours of a broad range of social network members. Open text responses regarding the nature of these concerns mostly related to individualised paradigms of gambling behaviour - including whether the participant perceived their network member could afford to gamble, was being responsible with their gambling, or were gambling too frequently. Participants experienced a range of negative impacts including significant financial issues, relationship difficulties, poorer emotional wellbeing as a result of worrying about the gambler, and loss of trust. Some described the negative experiences associated with growing up with a parent who gambled.
The research demonstrates the broad impacts of gambling on affected others. This study enhances our understanding of how women are harmed by gambling and considers the complexities of their experiences and relationships with the gambler. This extends knowledge beyond quantitative descriptors of harm among affected others and provides a critical reflection on the nuances of women's experiences with gambling and gambling harm.
赌博因其深远影响对全球公共卫生构成威胁。研究表明有害赌博对社交网络成员和更广泛社区具有连锁反应。虽然研究人员已记录了与受影响他人相关的极端危害，但定性研究受社交网络成员赌博影响的女性如何描述她们的担忧以及对自身生活的后续负面影响的研究有限。
对年龄在18岁及以上、在过去12个月内至少赌博一次且居住在澳大利亚维多利亚州和新南威尔士州的女性进行了在线小组调查。本文重点关注样本中报告受到他人赌博负面影响的一个子部分（n = 136）的开放式文本回复。该研究采用反思性主题分析来解释数据。
结果表明，女性对广泛的社交网络成员的赌博行为感到担忧。关于这些担忧性质的开放式文本回复大多与赌博行为的个体化模式有关，包括参与者是否认为其社交网络成员有能力赌博、赌博是否负责或赌博过于频繁。参与者经历了一系列负面影响，包括重大财务问题、关系困难、因担心赌徒而情绪较差以及失去信任。一些人描述了与有赌博习惯的父母一起成长所带来的负面经历。
该研究证明了赌博对受影响他人的广泛影响。这项研究增进了我们对女性如何受到赌博伤害的理解，并考虑了她们经历的复杂性以及与赌徒的关系。这扩展了我们对受影响他人伤害的定量描述之外的知识，并对女性赌博经历和赌博伤害的细微差别进行了批判性反思。
