Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Brief Adolescent Gambling Screen (BAGS)

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Adolescent problem gambling is a significant public health concern.
• Brief, reliable screening tools are needed for early identification and intervention.
• Existing measures may be too lengthy for widespread use in clinical or school settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate the initial reliability, validity, and classification accuracy of the Brief Adolescent Gambling Screen (BAGS).
• To create a concise screening tool for adolescent problem gambling.
• To adapt existing measures for DSM-5 Gambling Disorder diagnosis.

Main Methods:

• The three-item BAGS was derived from the nine-item Gambling Problem Severity Subscale (GPSS) of the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory (CAGI).
• Secondary analysis of existing CAGI data from 105 adolescents (49 female, 56 male) was performed.
• Stepwise multivariate discriminant function analysis identified key predictors for Gambling Disorder diagnosis.

Main Results:

• The BAGS demonstrated satisfactory reliability, validity, and classification accuracy.
• Classification accuracy estimates for BAGS include hit rate = 0.95, sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.98, false positive rate = 0.02, and false negative rate = 0.12.
• The BAGS performed comparably to the full GPSS and was more accurate than the SOGS-RA.

Conclusions:

• The BAGS is a promising brief screen for adolescent problem gambling.
• Further cross-validation with larger, diverse samples is recommended.
• The BAGS has potential utility in clinical, school, and epidemiological settings.