Effect of family task program for game addiction prevention in children

Abstract

Objective To study the effect of the family task program for the prevention of computer game addiction in school-age children.

Materials and methods This is a quasi-experimental research of two groups pre-post test design. Participants were 40 pairs of parents and children; the experimental group was Nareewittaya school, the comparative group was Darunarachaburi school. The experimental group received the family task program with participatory learning method. These activities took 2 weeks (one day per week) and booster by sending newsletters to parents one time per week at the 3rd and 4th week of the program. Data collection were performed at pre and post intervention as well as at the 5th week by self-administered questionnaires regarding knowledge, attitudes and practice on family developmental tasks for prevention of computer game addiction. Statistics used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and t-test.

Results The parents in the experimental group had significantly higher mean score on knowledge, attitudes and practice of family tasks than before intervention, and in the comparison group. Also, children in the experimental group received parental supervision significantly higher than those before intervention, and in the comparison group.

Conclusion This program could be applied to strengthen the parents capacity and promote family relations for preventing school-age children from being addicted to computer games.