Minor Gambling Poses Potential Risks to Adolescent Development

Abstract

In recent years, the prevalence of gambling behavior among adolescents and the increasing trend of problem gambling has been supported by evidence in various countries. Therefore, the following literature content will integrate a variety of past research evidence to explore the question of whether minor gambling behavior brings potential risks to adolescent growth. However, most research data indicated that adolescents have psychological characteristics such as impulsivity and weak emotional regulation abilities, which make them more susceptible to external factors and increase the individual's risk of problem gambling. According to different gambling severity levels, which could divided into four stages- non-problematic gambling, at-risk gambling, problem gambling, and pathological gambling. It is worth noting that the potential risks brought by gambling behavior among minors include cognitive biases behavior, psychological issues, indirect substance use, disharmony in family and social relationships, termination of academic schooling, and even participation in criminal or illegal activities. Since the potential risks brought by minor gambling will hinder their personal development in different aspects, schools and society should implement effective measures to help weaken teenagers' gambling intentions and prevent teenagers from developing serious level problem gambling. In addition to predicting adolescents' participation in gambling activities in advance through measures such as cognitive therapy, from an intervention perspective, effective strategies need to pay more attention to the minors themselves and their external environmental background.