AIM: To explore the relationship between social capital (social networks, familial and close relationships) and risk perception amongst older female gamblers (50 years+)
BACKGROUND: Despite significant investment in social marketing initiatives gambling harms persist. Predicted to live longer, poorer, and less healthy lives than men, older women are increasingly gambling online with gambling harms rising accordingly. Typically, older women are portrayed as being risk averse. However recent studies across several jurisdictions reveal significant shifts in risk perception in the domain of social risk. Yet little is known about how older women perceive gambling risk. This study provides an alternative to the psychological approaches that dominate gambling research. A social capital paradigm explores how older women perceive gambling risk and the socio-cultural perspectives that influence these perceptions.
Research Questions: (RQ1) How do older women perceive gambling risk? and (RQ2) How does social capital influence gambling risk perceptions amongst older women?’
Methodology: Social Constructivist approach and Hermeneutic Phenomenology
Methods: Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Qualitative Surveys and an Expert Mental Models Approach. Semi-structured individual interviews plus focus groups with gamblers, family and close friends/associates, gambling experts, social marketers, gambling legislators and gambling agencies.
Theoretical Frameworks: Social Capital, Risk Perception, Social Network Theory
To address and arrest gambling harms, social marketers need to understand how (older) women perceive gambling risk. Novel insights from this study can be used to inform social marketing, responsible gambling and health promotion initiatives targeting women’s gambling behaviors, using social capital and social networks to drive behavioral change
