Gambling behaviour of university students in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Given the stridency with which gambling advertisement is used to lure adolescents and young adults by modern news media, this study examines the prevalence of gambling behaviours among undergraduate students in South-Western Nigeria with the aims of determining its nature and its relationship with their study habits. The study sample consists of 2, 400 students selected by stratified random sampling across federal, state and private universities located in the South-Western part of the country. Two instruments, an adapted Version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and Bakare‘s (1970) Study Habit Inventory (SHI) were used for the collection of data in this study and the data collected were analyzed using descriptive analysis and Pearson r statistics. The result shows that a considerable percentage of undergraduate still demonstrate pathological gambling behaviour and a negative correlation between gambling behaviour and students‘ study habits.