Gambling in adolescence: a narrative review of the last 20 years

Abstract

Background Gambling has increasingly become a problem in adolescence over the last 20 years. Previous research has failed to identify exactly the level of involvement of adolescents in gambling, yet a relevant presence of addictive behaviors was noticed. Objective This narrative review highlights the implications of adolescent gambling, taking into consideration the main risk and protection factors aimed at limiting gambling activity, as well as the main links with the impulse-control disorder, addiction, and behavioral addiction. Methods The review process was conducted through Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar search engines. The considered keywords were “Gambling” AND “Adolescence,” “Behavioral addiction,” AND “Adolescence.” The articles related to gambling and adolescence in the last 20 years were included in compliance with inclusion and exclusion criteria, to perform a consistent analysis of the phenomenon and the related maintenance factors. Results Starting from 1067 articles, 107 were selected to denote the main thematic areas involved in the gambling problem. The online search was completed on December 13, 2019. Conclusions The narrative review of literature can facilitate the analysis of gambling problems in adolescence, as the main studies in the last 20 years showed the complexity of the problem, the links between addiction, and the most effective methods of prevention and treatment.