Gamblified game mechanics in Danish children and young people’s gaming

This project will map engagement with gamblified game mechanics in Danish children and young people’s gaming practices. Moreover, it will clarify whether engagement with these mechanics leads to higher levels of regular gambling and thus a higher risk of pathological gambling and problematic economic practices.

The project involves a two-wave survey design to ascertain:

1. The prevalence of gamblified game mechanics in Danish children and young people’s gaming.
2. The relationships between engagement with gamblified game mechanics, age, gender, socioeconomic background, and different patterns of gaming.
3. The relationships between engagement with gamblified game mechanics, regular gambling, and problematic economic practices over time.

The two-wave panel survey will build on a previous baseline study of gaming practices among Danish children and young people conducted in 2014 (in Danish). This study was a statistically representative mapping of gaming patterns among Danish 10–18-year-olds aimed at identifying possible relationships between gaming and lack of well-being. The two-wave panel survey in the present project will combine key variables from the previous study with new questions about engagement with gamblified game mechanics, regular gambling, and problematic economic practices. These questions will be developed and elaborated via a focus-group study funded by the Crown Princess Mary Center for Innovation in collaboration with partners from Social Science and Law studies. Moreover, the survey will extend the age group up to 25-year-olds to cover regular gambling and problematic economic practices among young adults.