The effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy with respect to the modification of early maladaptive schemas in reducing Internet addiction in high school girls

Various intervention studies have been conducted to reduce adolescent Internet addiction, but a study that assessed the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy based on the adjustment of maladaptive schemas has been neglected. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy with respect to the adjustment of early maladaptive schemas in reducing Internet addiction in high school girls.

This quasi-experimental study was performed using a pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a control group. The study population consisted of all adolescent girls in high schools in Tehran in 1398. The sample of this study was 30 adolescent girls who were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The research tool was Kimberly Young's Internet Addiction Questionnaire (1998). For the experimental group, mindfulness-based therapy was administered in 8 90-minute sessions due to the modification of early maladaptive schemas (Young and Martin, 2010; Tizdal et al., 2012), but the control group did not receive any intervention. Multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance tests were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that mindfulness-based therapy reduces Internet addiction and its dimensions (spending too much time, dependence on peace of mind, neglect of social life, performance control and neglect of academic work tasks) in the post-test phase and The same dimensions were followed except for neglecting the academic job duties of the course (p <0.01).

According to the obtained results, it is recommended that psychologists and counselors use these two treatment approaches to reduce Internet addiction in girl adolescents.