The Efficacy of Motivational Enhancement Therapy as an Intervention for Pathological Internet Use Amongst At-Risk Adolescents in Secondary Schools in Dagoretti Sub-County, Nairobi.

Kimaru Nyaga, Ph.D. Candidate; Alice Munene, Psy.D; & Michael Bowen, Ph.D., Daystar University

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) in treatment of pathological Internet use (PIU) among at-risk adolescents in Ruthimitu and Dagoretti Secondary Schools in Dagoretti Subcounty in Nairobi. The researcher applied a pretest-posttest design, a type of quasi-experimental research design. The quasi-experimental design required an experimental group and a control group which were used in determining the efficacy of MET as a therapeutic treatment. This study adopted purposive sampling technique to select the 135 respondents for the study from each school. The intervention comprised 4 sessions split into two comprising 8 group- weekly counselling sessions based on motivational enhancement therapy. There was a 3 month follow up after the intervention. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24.0 statistical software was used in organizing the data. The results revealed that the treatment group PIU mean at baseline was 2.9630 + (.18956 SD), which significantly reduced to 2.0074 + (.19302 SD) at midline with a further reduction to 1.5259 (.50119) at endline. The measure of sampling adequacy by Kaiser-Meyer Olkin showed that the reduction adequacy was significant (p=0.000), but no significant (p=0.953) reduction was observed in the control group. In regard to the respondents’ PIU at baseline the effect size was (d= 2.948; 95% CI: 2.983- 2.913) which was a large effect size. At the midline, the effect size was (d= 2.985; 95% CI: 3.012-2.958) while at the endline the effect size value was (d=2.978; CI: 3.040-2.915). The results were an indication that MET had a strong effect on the treatments of pathological Internet use among adolescents in secondary schools. Given the effect sizes in this study, there is all indication that MET is effective for reduction and treatment of PIU. Further studies should focus on possible predictors of efficacy such as gender, age, employment status of guardian, mental health, initial expectations, readiness to change, and whether study samples are drawn from treatment-seeking or non-treatment-seeking populations. Also, the components of MET could be compared to identify which are most responsible for maintaining long-term changes.

Keywords: pathological Internet use, Internet addiction, efficacy, motivational enhancement therapy