Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Internet Addiction with Narrative Therapy on the Constructive and Unconstructive Components of Problem Solving in Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Teenage girls are among the groups that are vulnerable to Internet addiction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for internet addiction with narrative therapy on the constructive and unconstructive components of problem solving in adolescent girls. This research was a semi-experimental study with a pretest, posttest and follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population was all female students with symptoms of Internet addiction in Lenjan County, Isfahan City, Iran, in the winter of 2025. From them, 60 adolescent girls were purposively selected and assigned to three groups (20 adolescent girls in each group). Problem solving questionnare (Cassidy & Long, 1996) was used to assess dependent variable in three stages. Two treatment groups were treated in 8 sessions of 75 to 90 minutes each, and the control group did not receive any treatment. The data were analyzed by repeated measure analysis of variance and post-hoc Bonferroni test  by SPSS version 26. The results showed that there was a significant difference in constructive and unconstructive problem solving between the cognitive and behavioral therapy for Internet addiction and narrative therapy groups and the control group (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of the two treatments (p<0.01). This means that the effectiveness of the two treatments on increasing constructive problem solving and reducing unconstructive problem solving was the same (p<0.05). Given that, cognitive and behavioral therapy for Internet addiction and narrative therapy were effective on the problem-solving ability of adolescent girls, these two treatments can be used in counseling and psychotherapy centers for adolescent girls with Internet addiction who have weak problem-solving ability.