Abstract
The pathological gambling in spanish children. Pathological gambling in children and adolescents has reached a great relevance in the last years after several epidemiologic studies which indicated a prevalence rate in adolescents greater than in adults. In the present study we analyzed in a representative sample of scholars (12 to 14 years old predominatly) of the city of La Coruña (N = 1.200) the prevalence of pathological gambling utilizing the Fishers's (1993b) Questionnaire for Pathological Gambling "DSM-IVJ". The results showed a 2.23% of probable pathological gamblers, with a greater rate of men that women (85% vs. 15%), increase with years and related with the gambler of fathers. Since these results we present the actions that are necessary to carry out to the reduction of the prevalence of pathological gambling in children and adolescents in order to no increase the current prevalence rate of adult pathological gambling in the future.
