2021/2022

This project (AGRI #92) is for the same research conducted in AGRI #89.

The project entails the matching of individual level lottery winner data (include the amount of the lottery win and the date of the lottery win) with highly confidential financial data on the winner provided by a Canadian Credit Bureau. Once the data is matched we will be able to examine how lottery wins of different amounts impact the financial outcomes of winners.

The project is progressing well. We are still in negotiations with the Canadian Credit Bureau to match our lottery winner data with individual level credit bureau data. Given the confidential nature of the Credit Bureau data, and the fact that we use name and address of lottery winners as part of the matching process, this process requires many assurances of confidentiality. However, it is our belief that when the matched data is made available to us it will result in very influential research.

Our research team includes: Scholnick (U Alberta), Notowidigdo (U Chicago), Kroft (U Toronto), Mikhed (Philadelphia Federal Reserve), Chakrabarti (New York Federal Reserve), Kalkarni (U Virginia).

Briefly, our initial AGRI-funded results revealed that people high in trait approach motivation (i.e., reward focus) responded to economic anxiety with increased risk-taking (published in 2023, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin). We have completed our first objective of examining if these initial findings extend to different types of anxious experiences (the effects were partially in support of our predictions) and we are in the process of preparing the results for publication. Due to COVID-related delays, we adapted our second objective of manipulating motivation using EEG to an online version. This study was pre-registered, administered, analyzed, and is also in prep for publication. We are now designing/administering two follow-up EEG studies (1-different, more poignant anxious experience, 2-manipulation of motivation to ameliorate the risk-taking effect). Additionally, part of our research was included in a second publication (published in 2022, Psychological Science). Finally, the current research has fostered an international collaboration with researchers at the University of Rostock (Germany), Department of Economics.

Our current research has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this research is the first to empirically demonstrate an ironic risk-taking effect, i.e., a causal link between different types of anxiety and increased risk-taking. Additionally, evidence that such ironic risk-taking is specific to certain personalities—i.e., people high in trait approach motivation—helps clarify the underlying psychological mechanisms (i.e., the ‘why’ this effect occurs). Practically, this research may also directly impact the treatment of disordered gambling. Identifying personality markers of vulnerable gamblers prone to engaging in risk-taking can inform person-specific interventions that allow individuals to manage anxiety more effectively, defuse defensive reactions, and promote wellbeing.

Kleinert, T., Nash, K., Leota, J., Koenig, T., Heinrichs, M., & Schiller, B. (2023). A self-controlled mind is reflected by stable mental processing. Psychological Science, 33(12). https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221110136

Nash, K. & Leota, J. (2022). Reactive Risk-taking: Anxiety Regulation via Approach Motivation Impairs Self-Control and Increases Risky Decisions. In K. Nash (Chair) Integrative Theory and Research in Self-Regulation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, (February 16-19, 2022). San Francisco, CA.

In 2022-2023, project outputs included a new working paper, “More than Chance: The Local Labor Market Effects of Tribal Gaming”, which has now been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed economics journal. The project also made progress toward knowledge dissemination and stakeholder engagement activities. Notably, the project PI presented and discussed the research at the Indian Gaming Association conference in San Diego in March 2023.

The release of my working paper is timely, given that this is the 35 year anniversary of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the legislation that paved the way for tribal gaming in the United States. With the increasing popularity of sports betting and online gaming, it is more important than ever to understand the economic impact of brick-and-mortar casinos for the local economies of Native communities. My research serves as one of the most comprehensive analyses of the economic effects of tribal gaming, studying the effects on different markets, over different time horizons, and for different subgroups. I show that tribal gaming has been responsible for sustained improvements in employment and wages on American Indian reservations and that American Indians benefit the most. As a current research fellow at the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD), I will be able to take advantage of a new gaming dataset compiled by the CICD based on a combination of public and proprietary data. I will alsobe able to link the gaming dataset to other proprietary datasets, such as the National Establishment Time Series data (NETS), to study the relationship between tribal gaming and local firm growth. The Center for Indian Country Development also plans to write a short policy piece about the uneven success of tribal gaming. In short, there are many previously unaddressed questions about tribal gaming that I plan to explore as part of an ongoing research agenda. Each of those questions has implications for policy.

Blog post: “Does Tribal Gaming Generate Net Benefits?”

CICD working paper: “More than Chance: the Local Labor Market Effects of Tribal Gaming”

I presented my research as part of the panel, “The Labor Crisis: Mastering Recruitment and Retention,” at the Indian Gaming Association’s Convention in San Diego this year: This conference is a combined conference for both academics and practitioners.

Our project primarily aims to supplement an online self-help workbook for gambling problems with a single motivational interview (MI) in order to enhance treatment engagement and outcomes. To that end, we are conducting a two-arm randomized controlled trial (workbook only vs. workbook plus MI) with follow-ups at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Over the past year, rolling recruitment 314 participants was completed, as well as all 3- and 6-month follow-ups. The 12-month follow-ups will be completed in May 2023. The 24-month follow-ups began in August 2022 and will be completed in May 2024. In terms of MI, 91 sessions were completed by 9 student facilitators trained by Dr. Hodgins. Workbook data (e.g., number of logins and activities completed) has been collected on a monthly basis via collaborators (Dr. Kylie Bennett and Mr. Anthony Bennett) at Australian National University and eHub Health in Australia. We have also consulted about protocol execution with our collaborator Dr. John Cunningham from King’s College London in the UK. No manuscripts have been published yet, but a manuscript with the 12-month follow-up data is in preparation and will be submitted for publication by the end of August 2023. At the same time, these results will be presented at the International Conference on Behavioral Addictions in Incheon, South Korea. Similar knowledge translation of
24-month outcome data (i.e., manuscript, conference presentations) will occur by the end of August 2024.

A secondary aim of this project is to analyze the specific components of MI that facilitate treatment engagement and success. To that end, we have hired a research assistant to train 7 undergraduate volunteers in the qualitative coding of MI session content. This research assistant is also responsible for day-to-day management of trial data and participant compensation. Approximately 43 of the 91MI sessions have been coded thus far, and analysis is expected to begin in September 2023. At least two manuscripts will result from these analyses.

Given that data collection is still underway and data analysis has not begun, there has not yet been a tangible impact or influence on priority areas. However, it is expected that impacts will materialize in the coming months when data are analyzed, published, and presented. From a theoretical perspective, our project is expected to bolster support for efficient online delivery of gambling self-help. Such interventions are remarkably accessible, easy to use, cost-effective, and in high demand from treatment providers and users alike; thus, establishing a strong empirical base of support is critical for their scaled deployment. One way that our study adds to this empirical base is by including 24-month follow-ups to analyze maintenance of successful treatment outcomes over a longer period of time, which is rare in the current gambling treatment outcome literature. Another important and impactful component of our study is the collection of detailed participant feedback (qualitative and quantitative), which will be used to refine the current intervention and improve future ones in a way that is consistent with stakeholder and community needs.

Additionally, our research is expected to inform on the critical ingredients of motivational interviewing that promote treatment engagement and successful outcomes. Knowledge of these critical ingredients will help streamline delivery of MI and maximize its potential as an adjunct, which can improve the efficiency with which MI is delivered both within and beyond the context of online self-help. Disseminating this research at an international level will ideally spur more research worldwide into gambling interventions, and perhaps influence policy changes to make such interventions more accessible.

Brazeau, B. W., Cunningham, J. A., & Hodgins, D. C. (2024). Evaluating the impact of motivational interviewing on engagement and outcomes in a web-based self-help intervention for gambling disorder: A randomised controlled trial. Internet Interventions, 35, 100707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2023.100707 

Brazeau BW, Hodgins DC, & Henkel L (upcoming). Can a brief motivational contact improve engagement with an online self-directed program to reduce gambling problems? Oral presentation abstract accepted to International Conference on Behavioral Addictions, Incheon, South Korea. August 2023.

The present study aimed to assess gambling and problem gambling behaviours after Canada’s pandemic responses were terminated and Canadian society began to establish a ‘post-COVID’ normalcy. Canadian gamblers who had been assessed prior to the pandemic (fall 2019) and during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 were reassessed in December 2021 (n = 1752) and again in May/June of 2022 (n = 1321). While many gambling behavioural changes manifest during the pandemic periods, such as an uptake of online gambling, this data provides insight into which behaviours endured ‘post-COVID’.

This research was able to extend the ANP and the ANP COVID online panel studies, assessing the same online panel participants pre-pandemic (ANP fall 2019), during various pandemic response stages (lockdown spring 2020, relaxed response phases fall 2020 and spring 2021), through pandemic response termination (fall 2021 and spring 2022). This study will contribute strong longitudinal assessment of the enduring, and short lived, impacts of the pandemic on gambling in Canada.

The data from this study is currently in the analysis stage. However, it is expected to contribute to questions raised regarding the potential for increased risk associated with the uptake of online gambling, the role of pandemic specific social and economic stressors on gambling, as well as examining the longevity of gambling behaviours developed during the pandemic including gambling cessation and diversification of gambling engagement.

Following Ethics Approval with ARISE (U of A), we contacted 7 experts (clinicians and psychometric researchers) to vet the 67 items we developed for the Congruent Communication Scale (CCS). The experts provided valuable input for refining the wording and addition/deletion of the items for the 6 communication postures – 5 incongruent and 1 congruent posture. The CCS was then administered by Leger using their panel of respondents according to our inclusion criteria of 50% couple relationship-satisfied and 50% couple relationship-dissatisfied individuals. We obtained a sample of N=624 respondents consisting of both relationship- satisfied and dissatisfied categories. Based on this sample, we conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and obtained a clear resolution of 6 factors with 18 items that conformed with our original conceptualization of the items into the categories of: superior, inferior, fixing, avoidant, enmeshed and congruent. At this we have started programming with Leger for Phase 2 that will provide a confirmatory factor analysis of the CCS and allow us to analyze the role of communication in relation to emotion regulation, gambling problems and mental health measures. The Phase 2 Wave 1 survey will be launched first week in May 2023.

The expert reviewers noted the merit to this scale for clients, clinicians and researchers and encouraged us to move forward with its development. The initial impact of the research is the testing of the users’ responses to our communication items, both in the item-development stage and after the items were reduced to 18. So far, the ad hoc responses (not the panel) have been favourable, suggesting that this scale would be useful for both clients and clinicians.