engleski

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE “WHO REALLY WINS?” YOUTH GAMBLING PREVENTION PROGRAM – RESULTS WITH REGARD TO DIFFERENT TYPE OF HIGH-SCHOOL

“Who really wins?” is the first Croatian youth gambling prevention program. Its pilot implementation was performed in 2 high schools in the City of Zagreb and evaluation results indicated better knowledge about gambling and less gambling related cognitive distortions among training group compared to a control group of students. Findings also show Program effects to be the same for students from different types of schools (Huic et al., 2017), which is important because findings from other research show that the boys in vocational schools have developed more adverse gambling consequences (23-28%) compared to those in grammar schools (18%). Among the girls, there were no differences in the extent of adverse psychosocial gambling consequences with regard to the type of high-school attended (Ricijas et al., 2016). This study will present part of the results of the first wave of national evaluation with students who participated in the Program (N=631, Mage=15, 61). The main aim of this study is to explore whether there are differences in short-term outcomes of the Program with regard to the type of high-school program attended (3 and 4 years vocational/professional schools and grammar schools). Results indicate that the Program is effective in enhancing students’ knowledge in gambling facts and reducing gambling-related cognitive distortions with no differences regarding the attended high-school program. The program proved to be effective in reducing some of the gambling activities, but it depends on the type of high-school attended. Results also show that this Program has no iatrogenic effects on behavior change. Results will be interpreted in the context of potential adaptations for increasing effectiveness of this Program for all types of high-school. Special emphasis will be put on the implications for future research of the effectiveness of this Program, in particular on long-term outcome evaluation.

youth gambling, prevention program, short-term outcome evaluation, school differences

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