A six-week conversational therapy program helps teenagers slash their screen and gaming addiction scores by up to 41%, with results holding steady six months later.
Brief motivational interviewing helps teens trade compulsive gaming for long-term goals
Teenagers who participated in just six sessions of motivational interviewing saw significant, lasting reductions in both internet and digital gaming addiction. While a control group saw no change in their habits, those in the therapy group maintained their progress for at least half a year after the program ended.
Internet addiction scores dropped by 35% following the intervention
Adolescents who engaged in the program saw their addiction metrics fall from 53.68 to 35.04 on a 60-point scale. This shift indicates that the intervention successfully moved students from compulsive, problematic use toward a more controlled relationship with the internet.
Digital gaming addiction plummeted by 41% for participants
Teens in the intervention group lowered their gaming addiction scores from 31.70 to 18.61 on a 35-point scale over six months. In contrast, students who received no therapy showed virtually no improvement, proving that these habits rarely "fix themselves" without a targeted intervention.
Brief, structured interventions create lasting changes without years of therapy
The study achieved these results using only one preparatory session and five weekly 40-minute group meetings. This high efficiency suggests that families can see significant behavioral shifts through a short-term commitment rather than an indefinite period of counseling.
What this means for your family
- Seek out counselors or therapists specifically trained in Motivational Interviewing (MI) if you are looking for professional help for a teen’s gaming habits.
- Prioritize collaborative conversations that help your teen identify the "gap" between their current screen time and their own long-term life goals.
- Look for short-term, structured group programs, as the social element and the specific MI framework appear more effective than simple monitoring.
- Shift the dynamic from lecturing to listening; MI works by helping the teen voice their own reasons for wanting to change.
Honest caveats
The study relied entirely on self-reported questionnaires, which means teens might have overreported their progress to please the researchers. Because the control group was "passive" (they received no attention at all), it is possible that some of the improvement came from simply having a supportive adult to talk to, rather than the specific mechanics of the therapy itself. Additionally, the trial was small, involving 88 ninth-graders in a single city in Turkey, so the results may not perfectly translate to every household.
Where this comes from
Şahin SS, Ayaz-Alkaya S (2026). The effect of motivational interviewing on internet addiction and digital game addiction in adolescents: a randomized controlled trial. European journal of pediatrics. doi:10.1007/s00431-026-06993-5 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42070011/