The purpose of this study is to develop a parents-involved group counseling program for preventing game addiction in elementary school students, the user group with potential risk of addiction to games, and to examine the effect of the program on the ...
The purpose of this study is to develop a parents-involved group counseling program for preventing game addiction in elementary school students, the user group with potential risk of addiction to games, and to examine the effect of the program on the tendency of game addiction.
For this purpose, research questions are set as follows: First, how should the parents involved group-counseling program be designed in order to prevent school students from being addicted to games? Second, what effect does the parents involved group counseling program for preventing game addiction have on elementary school students’ tendency of game addiction.
The subjects of this study were 5th and 6th graders at Y Elementary School in J City, and the user group with potential risk of game addiction were selected using the Internet Game Addiction Scale for Children developed by Kim Gyeong-Gu et al. (2006).
The parents; involved group counseling program for preventing game addiction was designed based on Park, In-Woo’s (1995) counseling program development model, and referred to the cognitive behavior treatment program for Internet game addiction (Lee, Hyeong-Cho & Ahn, Chang-Il, 2002), education program for preventing Internet game addiction in high grade elementary students (Yang, Mi-Kyeong, 2004), elementary children parents game addiction program (Oh, Gyeong-Ja et al., 2006), game desire control program (Pyo, Myeong-Hwa, 2003), game addiction prevention program for adolescents (Korea Game Industry Agency, 2005), and moral education program for preventing Internet addiction (Chu, Byeong-Wan, Yoo, Ji-Han & Park, Chan-Seok, 2003).
The test tool used in this study is the part for children of “Internet Game Addiction Scale for Infants and Children” by Kim, Gyeong-Gu et al(2006), and data were statistically processed through mixed ANOVA using SPSS/Windows 12. For enhancing the reliability of quantitative results, experience reports in sessions and the contents of the counselor’s observation were analyzed and the results were presented.
The results of this study are as follows: The experimental group who participated in the parents involved group-counseling program for preventing game addiction showed a significant decrease in the tendency of game addiction compared to the control group. In the results of analyzing contents as well, the experimental group showed a positive response to the effect of the program. This suggests that a parents involved group counseling program for preventing game addiction is effective in preventing elementary school students from game addiction. The results of this study imply that a parents involved group counseling program can control elementary school students’ playing of games and maintain the controlled state for a long time, and by doing so, it can be used to prevent psychological, physical and social programs caused by game addiction.
When the results were examined according to the sub factor of game addiction, among the three sub factors, the loss of tolerance and control and withdrawal symptom/emotional experience decreased significantly, but game oriented life did not show any significant result. This is probably because the experimental group students who had participated in the program provided information on the program to the control group students.
Based on the results of this study, we make suggestions for future research as follows: First, research is necessary to develop parent education programs for preventing children from game addiction so that parents can create healthy environments for playing games and play their roles as a manager and supervisor. Second, it is necessary to develop multi dimensional game addiction prevention programs in cooperation with communities and related organizations under the supervision of schools and local self governing bodies, and to utilize the human and material resources of communities in various ways.