NORMATIVE INFLUENCE ON SPORTS BETTING AMONG YOUNG MEN IN GHANA AN EXPLORATORY SEQUENTIAL MIXED-METHODS COMMUNICATION STUDY

Sports betting has become an increasingly visible feature of everyday sport culture in Ghana, yet theory-driven communication research explaining how betting becomes socially normalized among young men remains limited. Drawing on the theory of normative social behavior and its communication-centered reconceptualization, this dissertation used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine how interpersonal communication, observation, and media exposure shape perceived norms, and how those norms relate to sports betting and its associated harms. Study One used semi-structured interviews with ten young Ghanaian men who bet on sports. Participants described a filtered communication environment in which wins circulate widely, losses are minimized or withheld, and audiences are carefully selected. Betting appeared ordinary because young men encountered it through friends, betting shops, phones, advertisements, sports media, and public debate. At the same time, participants described avoiding the people most likely to object, including parents, partners, religious figures, and non-betting peers. The qualitative findings showed that betting was widely normalized as participation, but not uniformly approved, and that help-seeking was constrained because admitting a desire to stop also meant admitting that betting was no longer working. Study Two tested the proposed communication-centered normative pathway in a survey of 314 young Ghanaian men who bet on sports. The results showed a consistent distinction between descriptive and injunctive norms. Perceived descriptive norms were predicted by observation of referent others, media exposure, and communication frequency, and were associated with betting frequency. Perceived injunctive norms were predicted only by positive and excitatory betting talk and were associated with PGSI-SB severity. Indirect-association models showed that descriptive norms accounted for pathways from communication frequency, observation, and media exposure to betting frequency, while injunctive norms accounted for the pathway from positive betting talk to PGSI-SB severity. Outcome expectations and pro-betting attitudes strengthened the association between injunctive norms and PGSI-SB severity. Together, the findings show that communication does more than accompany sports betting. It helps make betting visible, frames what is worth sharing, signals what appears common or approved, and shapes the conditions under which young men can disclose harm or seek support. Findings distinguish the normative processes associated with how often young men bet from those associated with how much harm they experience. The findings clarify communication mechanisms relevant to harm reduction, including the potential value of correcting one-directional information environments and of addressing the disclosure barriers that discourage help-seeking. © 2026 Fidelis Y. Sesenu