Collective Play Versus Excessive Use: an Insight into Family-Focused Design Intervention for Mobile Phone Overuse

AbstractThe rapid growth in the usage of mobile and screen-based products and the corresponding addiction of adolescents to such devices continue to cause great concerns among different stakeholders. Family, as a potential psychosocial support for reducing the likelihood of addiction development, can be weakened as a result of the deterioration of parent-adolescent relationships associated with mobile devices overuse. Based on the family functioning and gamification-enhanced concepts, positive and fun interactions between family members can be a vital component in fostering a supportive relationship. An innovative and alternative family-focused intervention strategy, the interactive play platform named “Lamb Lamp,” has been developed to facilitate fun and pleasurable parent-adolescent interactivities. The design aims to divert family members’ attention away from their phones, while facilitating joyful and cheerful engagements for the whole family, with the ultimate aim of fostering the devel opment of a supportive relationship. This paper reports the initial results of a pilot study on 5 families recruited at a community-based treatment center, with at least one child aged between 12 and 19 who exhibited excessive Internet or mobile phone use problems. Daily patterns related to the adol escents’ Internet and mobile use and personal reflections on the perceptions of family interrelationships were recorded through lifestyle probes—a set of self-reporting home assignme...
Source: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Category: Addiction Source Type: research