THE PREDICTION OF GAMBLING BEHAVIOR AND PROBLEM GAMBLING FROM ATTITUDES AND PERCEIVED NORMS

The aims of this study were to characterise gambling attitudes and social norms among adult Australians, and to evaluate whether gambling behavior (frequency) and problem gambling could be predicted by a model combining attitudes and social influences. With a sample of 215 late adolescents and adults, the Theory of Reasoned Action was found significantly to predict gambling frequency and problem gambling, with intentions to gamble predicting behavior, subjective norms predicting intentions (and gambling frequency), and attitudes predicting intentions. Males scored higher than females on both problem gambling and gambling frequency. Across the sample, although most had gambled at some time (89 per cent), gambling frequency and problem gambling were low, and attitudes and subjective norms with respect to gambling were a complex mixture of acceptance and rejection.