Efficacy of Internet Use Disorder Prevention

Summary

Background. The reduction of prevalence rates of Internet Use Disorder (IUD) and its effective treatment are at high priority in both public health and educational policies. School-based preventive interventions facilitate a low-threshold approach for individuals with IUD, who are typically characterized by high therapy avoidance. Moreover, indicated approaches which target adolescents at high-risk show larger effects than universal prevention approaches. Simultaneously, they reduce unnecessary burden for the majority of high-school students that is not at-risk. The PROTECT intervention for indicated prevention of IUD in school settings was developed based on these preventive strategies.

Methods. Three-hundred and forty adolescents, aged 12-18 years, from 40 secondary schools in Germany, screened for high-risk of IUD onset, will be randomly assigned to a) PROTECT intervention group or b) assessment only control group. The tested intervention consists of a cognitive-behavioral 4-session brief-protocol. Follow-up assessments are at 1, 4 and 12 months after admission. Primary outcome is the 12-months incidence rate of IUD. Secondary outcomes are the reduction of IUD and comorbid symptoms and the promotion of problem solving, cognitive restructuring and emotion regulation skills.

Discussion. The indicated preventive intervention PROTECT follows the APA-guidelines for psychological prevention. It is theory- and evidence-based (guideline 1) and addresses both risk-reduction and strength-promotion (guideline 3), it considers current research and epidemiology (guideline 4) and ethical standards (guideline 5) such as professional secrecy and is designed as a systemic intervention (guideline 8) at the school-level. It is expected that the intervention decreases risk of IUD onset (incidence rate).

Conditions

• Mental Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

PROTECT intervention group

The indicated preventive intervention PROTECT consists of a cognitive-behavioral 4-session brief-protocol (90 minutes). It targets empirically identified risk factors of Internet Use Disorder (IUD), i.e. (1) boredom and motivational problems, (2) procrastination and performance anxiety, (3) social behavior and (4) emotion regulation. It addresses both risk-reduction and strength-promotion by cognitive behavioral (CB) interventions such as (1) psychoeducation, (2) cognitive restructuring (identification and modification of dysfunctional cognition), (3) behavior modification (improving problem solving skills, training of functional behavior and reinforcement) as well as (4) improving emotion regulation (training of sensory, imaginative and mindfulness based techniques).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Dietmar Hopp Stiftung

  collaborator OTHER

• Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Katajun Lindenberg, PhD · University of Education Heidelberg

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-09-30

Primary Completion

2018-04-30

Completion

2018-05-31