Psychology, 2018, 9, 2031-2043
http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych
ISSN Online: 2152-7199
ISSN Print: 2152-7180
An 8-Week Group Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy Intervention for Mobile Dependence
Ting Li, Lixia Cui
*
, Shu Ma, Shuang Zhang, Jie Zheng, Jing Xiao
*
, Qin Zhang
Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
Abstract
In China, college students with mobile phone dependence are more and more
common, which is accompanied by many psychological problems. We de-
veloped a group cognitive therapy (CBT) program for mobile phone depen-
dence and studied its effects in Chinese college students. Forty-two Chinese
college students, whose scores in the revised Chinese Test of Mobile Phone
Dependence (C-TMD) were 37 to 42 points, were assigned to two conditions
at a random: the group CBT intervention and the wait-list control condition.
The result showed that the CBT group demonstrated significantly more de-
crease in measures of the C-TMD and Simplified Symptom Checklist (SSCL)
than the wait-list controls at post-test and two-month follow-up.
Keywords
Mobile Phone Dependence, CBT-IA, Group CBT, C-TMD
1. Introduction
By the early 21st century, mobile phones had become ubiquitous in everyday life in
many countries, but researchers have found that this new technology is associated
with many problems. Excessive mobile phone use may be a health-compromising
behavior, like drinking alcohol or smoking (Koivusilta, Lintonen, & Rimpelä,
2003; Leena, Tomi, & Arja, 2005). Self-symptom reports show that mobile phone
use is generally associated with headaches, earache, fever, and other symptoms
(Korpinen, & Pääkkönen, 2009), and sometimes leads to inattention and fatigue
(Johansson, Nordin, Heiden, & Sandström, 2010), even predicts negatively aca-
demic performance of college students (Lepp, Barkley, & Karpinski, 2015). Mo-
bile phone use in a variety of settings will lead to serious consequences, and it is
banned in some jurisdictions (Bianchi & Phillips, 2005). Thomée, Eklöf, Gus-
How to cite this paper: Li, T., Cui, L. X., Ma,
S., Zhang, S., Zheng, J., Xiao, J., & Zhang,
Q. (2018). An 8-Week Group Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Mo-
bile Dependence. Psychology, 9, 2031-2043.
https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.98116
Received: July 3, 2018
Accepted: August 5, 2018
Published: August 8, 2018
Copyright © 2018 by authors and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access
DOI: 10.4236/psych.2018.98116 Aug. 8, 2018 2031 Psychology