In 2003, an inter-provincial group of funding partners was convened under the aegis of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) to oversee the development of the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory (CAGI). The objective was to develop an instrument for assessing gambling risk and problem gambling in adolescent populations. This research was to be undertaken in two phases. Phase I included an examination of the gambling literature, consulting with an expert panel and conducting focus groups with adolescents. This process resulted in the development of a conceptual framework, an operational definition of adolescent problem gambling, and a draft pool of 51 candidate items for measuring gambling risk and problems among adolescents.

Phase II of the project involved testing English and French versions of the candidate items to determine which should be included in the final instrument. Data collection included a pilot test with students from Manitoba and from Québec, followed by a general school survey, a re-test from the general school survey, and clinical validation interviews with students who initially participated in the general school survey. The Phase II Report is now available.

Phase III of the project has now been launched to fine-tuning the instrument through testing in clinical settings. Specifically, the objectives are a) to assess the classification accuracy of the CAGI for detecting problem gambling behaviours against a clinical assessment; and b) to compare the CAGI with existing instruments for youth problem gambling.

It is expected that the final version of CAGI will be released in the public domain early in 2009. While researchers are encouraged to test the instrument and report their findings to the CAGI research team, the sponsors would caution the broad use of CAGI in population surveys until such time as the instrument has been finalized and released.

This research initiative was funded by agencies in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.