There is a need to better understand how to motivate individuals experiencing addiction-related concerns, such as gambling problems, to engage in help-seeking behaviors. This experiment tested whether online messages based on principles of motivational interviewing (MI) could be used to encourage individuals to complete a problem gambling screener. Participants (N = 805) who gambled at least weekly and were not receiving treatment for gambling problems were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 message conditions that all offered participants the choice to complete either a problem gambling screener or an alternative questionnaire focused on gambling-related attitudes. The first condition was an MI-based interactive message, the second was similar in content but was presented in a noninteractive manner, and the third was a control message that did not include motivational elements. We found that the interactive motivational message yielded significantly higher rates of screener completion (39%) than the noninteractive message (28%) or control message (29%), χ² (2, N = 805) = 8.28, p = .016, Φ = .29. This remained significant after controlling for other study variables. Controlling for message condition, participants were more likely to complete the screener if they gambled more frequently, with more money, were more psychologically distressed and interested in receiving help for gambling problems, or had ever received treatment for gambling problems. These findings provide support for the use of interactive MI-based messages to encourage individuals at-risk for experiencing problems to use helping resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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激励性信息能否使在线赌博风险中的个人陷入困境？

有必要更好地了解如何激发与成瘾相关的问题（例如赌博问题）的个人进行寻求帮助的行为。该实验测试了基于动机访谈（MI）原理的在线消息是否可用于鼓励个人完成问题赌博筛查程序。通过Amazon Mechanical Turk招募了至少每周进行一次赌博且未接受赌博问题治疗的参与者（N = 805）。参与者被随机分配到3个信息条件中的1个，所有条件都为参与者提供了选择问题赌博筛选器或侧重于赌博相关态度的替代调查表的选择。第一个条件是基于MI的交互消息，第二个条件在内容上相似，但是是以非交互方式呈现的，第三个是不包含激励因素的控制信息。我们发现，与非互动消息（28％）或控制消息（29％）相比，互动激励消息产生的筛选完成率（39％）明显更高，χ²（2，N = 805）= 8.28，p = .016， Φ＝ 0.29。在控制其他研究变量后，这一点仍然很重要。控制消息条件后，如果参与者更频繁地赌博，花更多的钱，在心理上更加苦恼并且对获得赌博问题的帮助感兴趣，或者曾经接受过赌博问题的治疗，则他们更有可能完成筛选器。这些发现为使用交互式基于MI的消息提供了支持，以鼓励遇到风险的个人使用帮助资源。