Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Political change in South Africa since 1994 has led to a marked increase in opportunities to gamble. The purpose of the study was, therefore, to investigate attitudes towards gambling in African University students with the Gambling Attitude Scales by sex, course of study, and personality traits such as conservatism and risk-taking. The sample included 136 University of the North students, 80 first-year psychology and 56 second-year African law students. The students were 69 men and 65 women in the age range of 18 to 32 years (M of 21.8 yr., SD = 3.9). Analysis showed that men held more positive attitudes than women did towards gambling. Positive attitudes toward gambling were related to individual differences in risk-taking, liberalism, and course of study.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed) Washington, DC: Author.

Furnham

(1985) Attitudes to and habits of gambling in Britain. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 493–502.

Gupta

Derevensky

(1997) Familial and social influences on juvenile gambling behavior. Journal of Gambling Studies, 13, 179–192.

Kassinove

J. I.

(1996) Pathological gambling: The neglected epidemic. The Behaviour Therapist, 19, 102–104.

Kassinove

J. I.

(1998) Development of the Gambling Attitudes Scales: Preliminary findings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54, 763–771.

Kassinove

J. I.

Tsytsarev

K. M.

Davidson

(1998) Russian attitudes toward gambling. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 41–46.

Kruger

(1997) Situated learning: “Tiekie-Dice” amongst street children in South Africa. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 7, 1–11.

Ladoucer

Boisvert

J. M.

Pepin

Loranger

(1994) Social cost of pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 10, 399–409.

Ladoucer

Tourigny

Mayrand

(1986) Familiarity, group exposure, and risk-taking behavior in gambling. Journal of Psychology, 120, 45–49.

10.

Lesieur

H. R.

Cross

Frank

Welch

White

C. M.

Rubenstein

Moseley

Mark

(1991) Gambling and pathological gambling among university students. Addictive Behaviors, 16, 517–527.

11.

Lesieur

H. R.

Rosenthal

R. J.

(1991) Pathological gambling: A review of the literature. Journal of Gambling Studies, 7, 5–39.

12.

Nevid

J. N.

Rathus

A. R.

Greene

(1997) Abnormal psychology in a changing world. (3rd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

13.

Oskamp

(1991) Attitudes and opinions. (2nd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

14.

Powell

Hardoon

Derevensky

J. L.

Gupta

(1999) Gambling and risk-taking behavior among university students. Substance Use and Misuse, 34, 1167–1184.

15.

Zuckerman

(1983) Sensation seeking and sports. Personality and Individual Differences, 4, 285–292.

Gambling Attitudes among Black South African University Students

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References