Effectiveness of Emotion Efficacy Therapy on Internet Dependency and Psychological Vulnerability in Students Addicted to Internet

Internet addiction is a widespread problem inflicting most of today’s societies. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotion efficacy therapy on the reduction of internet dependency and psychological vulnerability (depression, anxiety and stress) in students with symptoms of internet addiction. The research was quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test and control group. The statistical population of the study included all male students of state technical schools with symptoms of internet addiction in the year 2020 in Tabriz City. In order to select the sample, one district from five educational districts and then a technical school were selected randomly. After that, the students possessing the inclusion criteria to the research were screened by Young’s Internet Addiction Test (YIAT20) and from among them 40 students were purposively assigned to either experimental or control group, each group consisting of 20 students. The experimental group received eight session emotion efficacy therapy whereas the control group received no intervention in this period. For the collection of data, Young’s Internet Addiction Test (YIAT20) and Lovibond’s Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) were used. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results from the comparison of the post-tests of the groups indicated that scores of internet dependency and psychological vulnerability of experimental and control groups varied significantly (p<0.01). The results showed that emotion efficacy therapy reduced internet dependency and psychological vulnerability (depression, anxiety and stress) in students with symptoms of internet addiction.