PhD Studentship
EPIC Risk Management are working with Bournemouth University to offer a PhD Studentship - 'Preventing gambling-related harms among secondary school aged children: evaluation and development of school-based training materials'.
Gambling has recently been identified as a public health issue. Although the legal age for gambling in the UK is 18 years, a growing body of evidence indicates that adolescents are not immune to the risks of gambling. These digitally enabled gambling experiences have increased exposure, availability and accessibility of gambling activities, rendering adolescents more vulnerable to problem gambling behaviours. This is particularly concerning as early exposure to gambling content is linked to high susceptibility to later problem gambling behaviours, and adverse developmental outcomes in adulthood.
Given the harms caused by gambling addiction and the lack of services available for treating gambling-related harm, prevention initiatives are urgently needed. EPIC Risk Management, a gambling risk management consultancy, have recently started delivering lived experience facilitation (talks about the dangers of gambling-related harm, delivered by former problem gamblers) to secondary school pupils aged 14-18 years in schools nationwide. However, although this lived experience facilitation has been perceived positively by both teachers and pupils, it has not been assessed systematically.
Therefore, this project aims to:
Evaluate the lived experience facilitation in terms of its long-term effectiveness in enhancing awareness about gambling-related harms among secondary school pupils,
Design a training package that is deliverable by teachers in secondary school PSHE lessons, and
Test the teacher training package in a pilot randomized controlled trial.
This is a fully-funded PhD studentship which includes a stipend of £17,668 each year to support your living costs.