title: The South Oaks Gambling Screen-revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA) revisited: a cut-point analysis.
abstract: The lack of a criterion validity gold standard defining adolescent pathological gambling represents a major limitation of the adolescent gambling literature. The present study employed Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis (ROC) to examine the performance of the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA) recommended cut-point of 4 against two-proxy gold standards: self-identified need for, or receipt of, help for gambling. Logistic regression analysis examined the correlates of self-identified need for help with gambling. The sample was comprised of 12990 adolescents from Atlantic Canada whose average age was 15 years and 50% of whom were male. The SOGS-RA performed as well or better with these proxy gold standards than with proxies used in previous studies. We concluded that the proxy gold standards based on self-identified need for or receipt of help represent a pragmatic solution to the lack of an adolescent-specific definition of problem or pathological gambling. Students in grade seven and SOGS-RA scores of 4 or greater were independent predictors of self-identifying a need for help.
authors.affiliation: Community Health and Epidemiology, Centre for Clinical Research, Dalhousie University, 5790 University Ave, B3H 1V7 Halifax, NS, Canada.
authors.forename: Brock
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boudreau
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poulin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009674:Nova Scotia; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012309:Risk-Taking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*