title: Italian Adolescent Gambling Behaviour: Psychometric Evaluation of the South Oaks Gambling Screen: Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA) among a sample of Italian students.
abstract: Since no Italian validated instrument focuses specifically on the measurement of pathological gambling in very young people, with this study, we aim to adapt an international instrument (SOGS-RA) and assess its psychometric properties in a sample (n = 14.910) of young Italian students aged between 15 and 19 years. Cross-cultural adaptation of the instrument was performed through translation, synthesis of translation, back-translation, expert committee review, and pre-testing. The kappa statistic for test-retest concordance ranged from 0.53 to 0.80. Internal validity was assessed by the MCA that identified one principal component with eigenvalue equal to 3,875: the Divgi index and very simple structure analysis also pointed out one common factor, so uni-dimensionality of the SOGS-RA was accepted. Moreover the SOGS-RA was found to have acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.780). Cronbach's alpha was also assessed separately among males and females (respectively 0.786 and 0.707). The SOGS-RA was assessed in relation to gambling frequency, alcohol and drug use: Chi squared test revealed a strong association both for males and females with gambling frequency (p value ≤ 0.0001), frequent use of illicit drugs (for each drug p value ≤ 0.0001) and having had 3 or more occasions of binge drinking in the last month (p value ≤ 0.0001). At the end we can say that, the results of our study suggest that the SOGS-RA screen may be useful to assess at-risk or problem gambling for both genders in comprehensive youth surveys.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Council of Research (CNR), Via Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, PI, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Colasante
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gori
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bastiani
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scalese
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Siciliano
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molinaro
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*