Impact of online gambling on youth problem behaviors during COVID-19 periods in South Korea.

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Junyoung ParkDepartment of Education, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1430-4651

Dongil KimDepartment of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea. dikimedu@snu.ac.kr.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5899-8043

Yongnam KimDepartment of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6731-7123

Funding

the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea NRF-2020S1A3A2A02103411

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of online gambling on problem behaviors among South Korean adolescents across three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic: pre-pandemic (2018), early pandemic (2020), and late pandemic (2022). We applied a doubly robust estimation approach that combines propensity score matching with regression analysis using nationally representative survey data from the Korea Problem Gambling Agency. Our findings indicate that online gambling significantly intensified adolescents' problem behaviors in all periods, with a more pronounced effect observed during the late pandemic phase in 2022 compared to the early phase in 2020. Sensitivity analysis further demonstrated that the estimated effects were substantially robust to unobserved confounding, particularly in 2018 and 2022. We conclude with a discussion of adolescents' heightened vulnerability to online gambling-related problem behaviors and the corresponding need for targeted interventions and policy responses.

Indexed as

Adolescent BehaviorCOVID-19GamblingProblem BehaviorAdolescentFemaleHumansInternetMalePandemicsRepublic of KoreaSARS-CoV-2AdolescentsCOVID-19Doubly robust estimationOnline gamblingQuasi-experimental designSensitivity analysis

Identifiers

PMID42069884

DOI10.1038/s41598-026-49414-1

PMCPMC13324263

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.