By Charlotte Morris
New research from the University of Glasgow gives a deeper understanding of the impact of gambling harms on emotional wellbeing – both on the individual and their loved ones.
Research undertaken by the University of Glasgow as part of the new Policy Research Unit in Addictions shows that the link between poor emotional wellbeing and gambling-related harms extends further than previously thought.
It finds that people with a partner experiencing gambling-related harms tend to have poorer emotional wellbeing themselves, and that their wellbeing levels are substantially worse when their partner’s experience of gambling-related harms are more severe.
To date, related research has focused on the individual experiencing harms and not the wider impact on their families.
UofG’s Sarah Tipping, who led the research, said: “Research and policy haven’t really focused on the wider impacts that gambling can have, despite people who have experienced gambling-related harms highlighting the devasting consequences of gambling on their families.
“We now see a strong association between poorer emotional wellbeing and living with someone experiencing gambling harms, with evidence that emotional wellbeing is lower still among those whose partners are experiencing more severe gambling-related harms.
“This highlights how the harms from gambling extend from individuals to those close to them, meaning the circle of influence is wider than is often understood.”
A second study found that people who experience relatively low levels of gambling harms also have poorer emotional health and wellbeing than those who gamble but experience no harms.
Sarah added: “This research shows that even those who are displaying what we think of as lower levels of gambling harms, still have lower levels of wellbeing.
“Raising awareness and understanding of these issues is vital if we are to ensure that the right support and interventions are in place.”
Both studies used data from the Health Survey for England and Scottish Health Survey. These large-scale national health surveys collect a wide range of information about health, including mental health and emotional wellbeing, gambling behaviour, and gambling harms.
Gambling harms were measured using the Problem Gambling Severity Index, a robust and validated tool that measures behavioural symptoms and certain adverse consequences from gambling, that is used extensively to measure the impact of gambling harms, both in the UK and internationally.
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Link to report on link between of lower levels of risk and poor wellbeing: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0033-3506(25)00345-2
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In both studies emotional wellbeing was measured using four self-reported measures: a binary measure indicating a long-term mental health condition, a scale question on life satisfaction, the twelve-item General Health Questionnaire (a validated measure of emotional distress), and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Health and Wellbeing Scale (a validated indicator of probable depression). These are robust and widely used measures of emotional wellbeing. A range of measures were included to ensure the findings were robust.
Both studies found strong links between gambling-related harms and three of the measures – life satisfaction, emotional distress (measured using GHQ-12) and probable depression (WEMWBS). However, there was no evidence of an effect between gambling-related harms and an increased likelihood of a long-term mental health condition amongst the same group. This was likely to be due to the different time scales and types of conditions covered by these measures; this is discussed further in the conclusions of both papers.
The analysis also controls for the individual’s socio-demographic characteristics and their own gambling participation (in other words, this rules out the relationship identified in the study being due to underlying differences in the characteristics of people who are married to/cohabiting with someone experiencing gambling harms and their own gambling behaviour).
This project is funded by the NIHR (NIHR Unique Identifier = NIHR206123). Any views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.