Background: The importance of effective therapeutic interventions has been highlighted by rising concerns about adolescent addiction to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially Instagram. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the Individual psychotherapy program for ICT addicton , focusing on reducing the severity of Instagram addiction and decreasing the total hours of Instagram usage in adolescents. The study distinguishes between 'addiction severity', which indicates compulsive behavior and psychological dependence, and 'usage duration', which measures the actual time spent on Instagram.
Methods: This was a pre- experimental study with AB design. The statistical population includes adolescent girls from Karaj city, Iran, addicted to Instagram. Four girls were selected from among 14 girls interested in participating in the research in the summer of 2021. The participants answered questionnaires on addiction to mobile-based social networks at the beginning of the treatment and during the treatment process. Each of them participated individually in 21 sessions of the psychotherapy program. Data analysis was done using statistical indicators (change in trend direction, median change, mean, reliability index, determination of overlap percentage, and improvement percentage). All calculations were done by SPSS software-version 25.
Results:Visual analysis indicated the positive effect of the individual psychotherapy program for addiction to ICT on Instagram addiction. The results also showed a decrease in the hours of using this software in all four adolescents.
Conclusion: According to visual analysis, the study findings support the effectiveness of the Individual Psychotherapy Program for ICT addiction in reducing both the use of Instagram and the associated addiction levels among the adolescents. However, it is crucial to take into account the limitations of a single-subject design in generalizing the results and the assumptions required for inferential statistics.Therefore, these findings are considered preliminary and need to be validated through larger-scale studies.
Type of Study:
Research |
Subject:
Special Received: 2023/09/3 | Accepted: 2024/04/7 | Published: 2024/05/21