Spanish adaptation of the Gambling Advertising Impact Scale for adolescents

Abstract

Media pressure from gambling advertising has reached worrying levels. It constitutes a risk to the mental health of young people and adolescents by promoting a favourable attitude towards gambling, a higher frequency of gambling and a perception of greater accessibility. Currently, there is no instrument available to assess the impact of gambling advertising. Objective: The present study aims to adapt and validate the Impact of Gambling Advertising Scale (IGAS). Design: The IGAS scale was translated from English ensuring its linguistic, conceptual and metric equivalence. The psychometric properties were then tested. Site: Comunidad Valenciana (España). Participants: 1724 adolescents with a mean age of 16.52 years (SD =.759). Intervention: Self-administered, paper-based questionnaire in a single measure. Main measurements: Advertising impact, and gambling intention, severity and availability. Results: Internal consistency and two-half reliability were good, Cronbach's α =.782 and α =.70, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis concluded that the Spanish version replicates the original three-dimensional version. Convergent validity analyses showed direct and significant relationships with different aspects of gambling behaviour, and other predictors. Conclusion: The adapted version of the IGAS is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of the impact of advertising on adolescents. The scale is a useful instrument for the diagnosis of risk level and the evaluation of preventive interventions.