Effectiveness of a psychological growth camp without internet in the treatment of adolescents at risk of internet addiction: a pilot study

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a psychological growth camp in the treatment of adolescents at risk of Internet addiction in Taiwan.

Methods

We designed a psychological growth camp to treat adolescents at risk of Internet addiction. The CIAS (Chen Internet Addiction Scale) was used to assess the severity of Internet addiction at baseline, immediately after the camp, and at 1-month and 2-month follow-up visits.

Results

A total of 16 participants were recruited, including 10 at risk of Internet addiction and 6 without the risk of Internet addiction. The results indicated that the participants not in a 2-parent family had significantly higher CIAS scores than those in a 2-parent family (p = .034). The participants at risk of Internet addiction exhibited significant improvements in total CIAS score at the time immediately after the camp (p = .033) and at 1-month (p = .001) and 2-month (p = .003) follow-up visits. Moreover, the incidence of possible Internet addiction was not significantly decreased immediately after the camp (p = .056) but was significantly decreased at 1- and 2-month follow-up visits (p < .05) compared with the baseline level. Otherwise, no significant improvements in total CIAS score or subscales were observed at the follow-up visits (p > .05) for the participants not at risk of Internet addiction.

Conclusion

The results indicate that the psychological growth camp without Internet might be effective in treating adolescents with Internet addiction.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• Chen Internet Addiction Scale
• internet addiction
• negative control
• psychological growth camp

Transparency

Declaration of funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Department of Health, Chiayi City Government (A109014).

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

All the authors designed the protocol of the study. YJH and CLS participated in searching the literature, analyzing the data, drafting the manuscript, critical review of the article. All the authors approved the final version for publication.

Acknowledgements

None.