Most participants reported that family members with a positive history of problem gambling were biological relatives, lived with them full-time, and experienced long-term difficulties with gambling.
One-quarter (25.5%) of participants reported that at least one family member (16.5% father, 7.5% mother, 7.6% siblings) living with them when they were growing up had a gambling problem. The sample consisted of 97 treatment-seeking gamblers in Australia. This convergent mixed-methods study aimed to explore the: (1) sources of heterogeneity in the familial (paternal, maternal, and sibling) transmission of gambling problems (2) degree to which family-of-origin characteristics are associated with family-of-origin problem gambling and (3) beliefs of gamblers about the nature of the familial transmission of problem gambling. There are considerable gaps in our understanding of the familial transmission of gambling problems.
