Abstract:
Game use and addiction among Thai youth is increasing. This increase has been linked to a variety of negative consequences that affect education, social interactions, and health. Consequently, it is necessary to create a prevention program to minimize the adverse effects of gaming addiction and prevent its spread among children at an early age to minimize its effects. A quasi-experimental study was implemented among grade 4-5 students at primary schools in Bangkok, Thailand between February and July 2015 to develop a self-regulation program with participatory learning techniques, school and family-based intervention to prevent addictive behavior. The schools were selected through multi-stage random sampling. Two comparable schools were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control groups with classrooms randomly selected. Classrooms were divided based on sample size calculation into an intervention group (n=151 students) and a control group (n=159 students). While students in the control group received no intervention, students in the intervention group received self - regulation techniques. The program duration was eight weeks with 1-hour sessions each week. Instruments used in the study were: self - regulation techniques for gaming; questionnaires on knowledge and attitude about games, game addiction screening test (GAST) and game addiction protection scale (GAPS). Master teachers passed in-house training on prevention of gaming addiction in the intervention school, and training for teachers and guidelines for parents. All Participants were assessed three times: at baseline, post intervention, and at a 3 month follow-up. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics: Chi-square test, and t-test to describe the characteristics of participants, and repeated measure ANOVA to test the effectiveness of the intervention. As expected due to randomization, at baseline there were no statistically significant differences in the characteristics of either group. After the intervention, findings revealed that there were significant differences in knowledge, attitude, self-regulation and game addiction behavior (p < 0.05) immediately at post-intervention and at the 3 month follow-up for the intervention group. Moreover, positive effects of the intervention included increased knowledge, attitude, and self-regulation and improved game addiction behavior with decreasing time spent on games. GAST scores after intervention and at 3-months were improved. Results from the study suggest that the participatory learning school and family-based intervention program was appropriate for educating the school-age child to prevent and improve game addiction behavior.
