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Objective: In this study, we aimed to conduct an in‐depth psychometric investigation of the Relationships Scales Questionnaire (RSQ). Method: About 717 UK‐based participants responded to an online questionnaire (F = 540, M = 177; age range 18–66 years, M = 25, SD = 8.46). We conducted (a) a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to test previously published factor models of the RSQ, (b) traditional (exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis) and contemporary (exploratory graph analysis) exploratory techniques, followed by (c) validity and reliability analyses. Results: Although the RSQ was developed to assess four categories of adult attachment (typological approach – i.e., secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful), our findings do not support the hypothesis that the RSQ delivers a psychometrically consistent measure of adult attachment styles. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that a two‐dimensional approach (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) to assessing adult attachment is optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Fans in Training (EuroFIT) program integrated need-supportive motivational strategies from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in the design of a healthy lifestyle program delivered to overweight or obese male football fans (n = 1113; mean age of 45.9 [SD = 9.0] years old and BMI of 33.2 kg/m2 [SD = 4.6]) in professional football club settings in the UK, Portugal, Norway and the Netherlands. With a critical realist approach, we developed a structured thematic framework analysis based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to investigate the process of change in men who participated in the EuroFIT randomized controlled trial (RCT). We examined whether men's experiences of the social context of EuroFIT, and whether their engagement with the program's motivational strategies supported or frustrated their basic psychological needs while attempting to change their lifestyle behaviours. We found that men in all countries perceived the social contexts of the EuroFIT program as mostly needs-supportive, and that they found engagement with most of the program components helpful in supporting their psychological needs when initiating health behaviour changes. However, some of the program elements in the EuroFIT program were perceived as needs-frustrating by some participants and need-supportive by others. Implications for the use of need-supportive motivational strategies in designing future lifestyle interventions in sport settings to promote health behaviour change among male football fans are discussed. • The EuroFIT program used motivational strategies from Self-Determination Theory. • Men perceived the social contexts of EuroFIT as mostly needs-supportive. • Men's changes were supported through a toolbox of self-regulatory skills. • Being with 'other-men-like-me' supported perceptions of relatedness. • Use of competition fostered controlling motives towards PA adoption for some. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To explore continuities and changes in gambling behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that influenced these among a sample of regular sports bettors., Methods: A longitudinal qualitative study using in-depth interviews. Sixteen sports bettors living in Britain took part in the first interviews in July-November 2020, and 13 in the follow-up interviews in March-September 2021., Results: Individual patterns of gambling were episodic: it was common for gambling to increase during some periods of the pandemic and to decrease during others, reflecting the dynamic and (often) challenging circumstances which people were living through at the time. Changes and continuities in gambling during the pandemic were influenced by a range of factors which we have grouped into two main themes relating to 'gambling and the sports landscape' and 'disruption to day-to-day life'. It was common for a constellation of factors to influence gambling behaviour rather than a single factor. These constellations of factors varied from person to person and at different times during the pandemic., Conclusions: Findings of the present study are consistent with earlier literature examining gambling careers before the advent of COVID-19 showing that gambling trajectories are non-linear. Our research suggests that 'typical' patterns of gambling behaviour (e.g. being episodic), and the broader known risk and protective factors within individuals, families, communities and societies have been amplified during the pandemic. Findings highlight the adaptability of the gambling industry to continue to reach consumers through product offerings and marketing even in a period of unprecedented restrictions on supply, and show the potential resulting harms of these actions among gamblers at risk of experiencing gambling problems. Taken together, findings from this study provide important new insights relevant to discussions about gambling regulation, and support calls for multifaceted and comprehensive policy, regulatory, and treatment approaches, to minimise gambling-related harms., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethical approval for this element of ‘The Betting and Gaming COVID-19 Impact Study’ [26] was granted by the University of Stirling’s General University Ethics Panel (ref: GUEP (19 20) 930). Competing interests: AB and CD worked on the current study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. In 2018/19, NC, FD, GR and RP worked on one study funded by GambleAware, which examined the impact of gambling marketing/advertising on young people and vulnerable groups. In the last five years FD discloses grant funding for gambling-related projects from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. FD has received payment from the University of Chester to participate in an online focus group to help develop an awareness raising intervention to increase knowledge of the marketing strategies used by the gambling industry to promote their products. In the last 5 years, CB has received funding for research relating to gambling from the Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health and Care Research and the British Academy. In the last five years RP discloses grant funding for gambling-related projects from UKRI, the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Social Research. In the last five years CG discloses grant funding from gambling-related projects from the Economic and Social Research Council and National Institute for Health and Care Research. In the past five years GR has received research funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, the Medical Research Council and the British Academy. GR has had travel and accommodation expenses paid by the UK Society for the Study of Addiction, the Howard League for Crime and Penal Reform (via the Gambling Commission), the University of Helsinki Centre for Research on Addiction, Control and Governance/ Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Australian Research Council, and the Institute for Gambling and Society (GLUG) at the University of Ruhr, Bochum. In the past 5 years, HW has been funded for gambling studies by the Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, the Gambling Commission (including their regulatory settlement fund), Office of Health Disparities and Improvements/Public Health England; Greater London Authority; Greater Manchester Combined Authority; Blackburn with Darwen Local Authority and the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport. In 2018/19, HW received funding from GambleAware for a project on gambling and suicide. HW declares consulting fees from the Institute of Public Health, Ireland and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. HW declares payment for delivery of seminars from McGill University and from John Hopkins University. HW has been paid as an expert witness by Lambeth and Middlesborough Borough Councils; HW declares travel costs paid by Gambling Regulators European Forum, the Turkish Green Crescent Society, Alberta Gambling Research Institute and the REITOX Academy (administered through the Austrian National Public Health Institute). She served as Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling between 2015 and 2020, remunerated by the Gambling Commission; is a Member of the WHO panel on gambling (ongoing) and provided unpaid advice on research to GamCare for their Safer Gambling standard (until 2021). She runs a research consultancy for public and third sector bodies only. She has not, and does not, provide consultancy services to the gambling industry. In the last five years KH discloses grant funding from gambling-related projects from the Economic and Social Research Council and National Institute for Health and Care Research., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented restrictions on people's movements and interactions, as well as the cancellation of major sports events and social activities, directly altering the gambling landscape. There is urgent need to provide regulators, policy makers and treatment providers with evidence on the patterns and context of gambling during COVID-19 and its aftermath. This protocol describes a study addressing the following three questions: (1) How has COVID-19 changed gambling practices and the risk factors for, and experience of, gambling harms? (2) What is the effect of COVID-19 on gambling marketing? (3) How has COVID-19 changed high risk groups' gambling experiences and practices? This mixed-method study focuses on two groups, namely young adults and sports bettors. In workpackage-1, we will extend an existing longitudinal survey of gambling in young adults (aged 16-24 years) (first wave conducted June-August 2019), adding COVID-19-related questions to the second wave (July-August 2020) and extending to a third wave in 2021; and undertake a survey of sports bettors in the UK (baseline n = 4000, ~July-August 2020), with follow-ups in ~October-November 2020 and ~February-March 2021. In workpackage-2, we will examine changes in expenditure on paid-for gambling advertising from January 2019 to July 2021 and undertake a mixed-method content analysis of a random sample of paid-for gambling advertising ( n ~ 200) and social media marketing ( n ~ 100) during the initial COVID-19 "lockdown". Workpackage-3 will involve qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of (a) young adults (aged 18-24 years) and (b) sports bettors.

Increasing prevalence of obesity poses challenges for public health. Men have been under-served by weight management programs, highlighting a need for gender-sensitized programs that can be embedded into routine practice or adapted for new settings/populations, to accelerate the process of implementing programs that are successful and cost-effective under research conditions. To address gaps in examples of how to bridge the research to practice gap, we describe the scale-up and scale-out of Football Fans in Training (FFIT), a weight management and healthy living program in relation to two implementation frameworks. The paper presents: the development, evaluation and scale-up of FFIT, mapped onto the PRACTIS guide; outcomes in scale-up deliveries; and the scale-out of FFIT through programs delivered in other contexts (other countries, professional sports, target groups, public health focus). FFIT has been scaled-up through a single-license franchise model in over 40 UK professional football clubs to 2019 (and 30 more from 2020) and scaled-out into football and other sporting contexts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England and other European countries. The successful scale-up and scale-out of FFIT demonstrates that, with attention to cultural constructions of masculinity, public health interventions can appeal to men and support them in sustainable lifestyle change.

Background: Levels of obesity remain high in the UK. The Football Fans in Training (FFIT) randomised controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a 12-week, gender-sensitised weight management, physical activity and healthy eating group programme delivered through professional football clubs helped men aged 35-65 years with BMI at least 28 kg/m 2 lose a clinically-significant amount of weight. We aimed to test the feasibility of a minimally-adapted FFIT programme for delivery to women by assessing recruitment and completion rates; determining if the programme content and delivery required further refinement; and evaluating the potential of FFIT for Women to deliver improvements in weight and other clinical, behavioural and psychological outcomes., Methods: A feasibility study of the FFIT for Women programme including before-and-after measurements of clinical (weight, waist, body mass index [BMI], blood pressure) behavioural (self-reported physical activity, food and alcohol intake) and psychological (self-esteem, positive and negative affect, physical and mental HRQoL) outcomes at five professional football clubs. Post-programme focus groups assessed acceptability of the programme format, content and style of delivery for women., Results: Recruitment across the five clubs resulted in 123 women aged 35-65 years with BMI at least 28 kg/m 2 taking part in the study. The mean weight (95.3 kg) and BMI (36.6 kg/m2) of the cohort were both suggestive of high risk of future disease. Of 123 women who started the programme, 94 (76%) completed it; 72 (58.5%) returned for 12-week follow-up measurements. Participants compared FFIT for Women favourably to commercial weight loss programmes and emphasised the importance of the programme's physical activity content. They also spoke positively about group dynamics, suggested that the approach to food was less restrictive than in other weight loss approaches, and broadly enjoyed the football setting. Mean weight loss was 2.87 kg (95% CI 2.09, 3.65, p ≤ 0.001). Mean waist reduction was 3.84 cm (2.92, 4.77, p ≤ 0.001)., Conclusion: In this evaluation, FFIT for Women was feasible, acceptable and demonstrated potential as a weight loss programme. Our findings suggest the programme has the potential to produce outcomes that are on a par with existing commercial and state-funded offerings.