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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Adolescent Psychological Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2024.1492685

Transforming Family Dynamics: Unexpected Positive Effects of Treatment for Adolescent Gaming Problems on Family Relationships

Provisionally accepted
Sabina Kapetanovic Sabina Kapetanovic 1*Maiken Due Nielsen Maiken Due Nielsen 1Sevtap Gurdal Sevtap Gurdal 1Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson 2
  • 1 University West, Trollhättan, Sweden
  • 2 Lund University, Lund, Skane County, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    While parenting is important for the development of adolescent problem gaming, it is unknown whether treatment of such problems has a bearing on parenting. This study explores the effects of individual relapse prevention (RP) treatment for adolescent problematic gaming on parenting practices and family dynamics. Employing the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Svensson's method of analysis of change with data from a clinical sample of N = 72 adolescents (ages 13-18) in intervention (n = 39) and control (n = 33) group, we found that participants in the intervention group reported reduced family conflict and changes in parenting practices, including less inquiry, fewer rules and intrusion regarding gaming posttreatment. In contrast, the control group experienced a decline in family cohesion. Our findings underscore the active role adolescents play in influencing family dynamics and highlight the positive spillover effects of treatment on family dynamics and parenting practices.Trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05506384 https://clinicaltrials. gov/ct2/show/NCT05506384.

    Keywords: Parent-child bonds, Internet gaming disorder, Problematic gaming, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Treatment

    Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kapetanovic, Due Nielsen, Gurdal and Claesdotter-Knutsson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sabina Kapetanovic, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

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