JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

This protocol describes a Swedish research project in which we will implement and evaluate an intervention labeled Relapse Prevention (RP) among children in Swedish child and youth psychiatry (CYP) clinics.

Objective:

The aims are: 1) to evaluate an RP treatment for patients showing signs of problem gaming (PG) or Internet gaming disorder (IGD) recruited from CYP clinics and 2) to test whether the quality of parent–child relationships plays a role in the effect of RP treatment and vice versa – whether the RP treatment has a spillover effect on the quality of parent–child relationships.

Methods:

This study is a two-arm, parallel-group, early-stage RCT with embedded qualitative components. Children aged 12–18 years who meet criteria for problem gaming (PG) or Internet gaming disorder (IGD), will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either intervention (RP treatment) or control (treatment as usual), with a total of 160 participants (80+80) in the trial. The primary outcomes are measures of gaming and gambling behavior pre- and post-intervention, and the secondary outcomes include child ratings of parent–child communication and family functioning.

Results:

Preliminary analyses will be conducted with regression analyses, paired sample t-tests and ANOVAs in Mplus. The study will be supplemented with a qualitative component with semi-structured interviews to capture participants’ and clinicians’ experiences of the RP, as well as attitudes about parent–child relationships and parenting needs in carers whose children completed the RP. The qualitative data will be analyzed with thematic analysis.

Conclusions:

This study will be the first RCT evaluating RP as a treatment for child and adolescent PG and IGD in Sweden. Since problem behaviors in children interact with the family context, investigating parent–child relationships adjacent to treatment of child PG or IGD is an important strength of the study. Further, different parties, i.e., children, carers, and clinicians, will be directly or indirectly involved in the evaluation of the treatment, providing more knowledge of the treatment and its effect. Limitations include comorbidity in children with PG or IGD and challenges with recruitment of the participants. Clinical Trial: The trial was retrospectively registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number: NCT05506384; 2022-04-13).