NCT07245862

Evaluation of a Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use

Evaluation of a Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use in a Child and Adolescent Population Within Social Services in Light of the New Social Services Law

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 170 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Region Skane · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 11 Years – 14 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The Family-Centered Program for Problematic Gaming and Excessive Screen Use (FAME) is a pioneering initiative designed to address the growing challenges of excessive screen use and gaming among children and adolescents, particularly within family dynamics.

Detailed description

The Family-Centered Program for Problematic Gaming and Excessive Screen Use (FAME) is a pioneering initiative designed to address the growing challenges of excessive screen use and gaming among children and adolescents, particularly within family dynamics. With digital media becoming one of the most prevalent leisure activities, excessive use has been linked to adverse outcomes, including depression, sleep disturbances, and family conflicts. Despite these concerns, there are no evaluated family-centered interventions in Sweden that address these issues comprehensively. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the S-FAME program, developed in collaboration with social services across two municipalities (Lund, Eslöv). The program integrates psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and social-emotional learning, focusing on both children and their families. It acknowledges that problematic screen use often develops within family contexts and aims to improve parenting practices and enhance parent-child relationships. The project aligns with the new Social Services Act, which will come into effect in July 2025, emphasizing easily accessible, preventive, and low-threshold interventions-so-called non-means-tested services. By targeting both individual and family needs, the intervention has the potential to reduce societal costs, enhance family well-being, and address health inequalities. With its innovative and scalable design, S-FAME provides a much-needed framework to tackle one of today's most pressing challenges in youth development- excessive screen use. We are a team of researchers with great experience in research as well as clinical work in the field of adolescence, social work and ANDTS (Alkohol, narkotika, droger, tobak och spel). The project is well established within the School of Social Sciences/Medical Faculty at Lund University, as well as within the innovation and development departments of two social services units. PI Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson (ECK), associate professor and senior consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry at Lund University/Region Skåne with major research areas of gaming, gambling and screens use. ECK has extensive clinical expertise and has played a key role at the Swedish Public Health Agency, contributing to the development of recommendations on child digital media use. PI ECK brings extensive experience and formal training in leading collaborative projects.

Conditions

• Adolescent Behavior
• Social Media Addiction
• Gaming Disorder
• Family Relations

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use in a child and adolescent population within Social Services	The critical components include psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and social and emotional learning.his would be the first intervention offering help for both children and their parents. Such an intervention could be beneficial not only to individual families, but also to society at large by reducing societal costs, enhancing family well-being, and addressing health inequalities . the intervention is agroup intervention in 4 sessions with parents in one group and children in one group. The goals are to help children and parents understand the positive and negative aspects of screen use and to prevent related problems and family conflicts. T
BEHAVIORAL	Control	This group will recieve TAU == treat ment as usual depending on the practice at the Social service they belong to

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-01-01
• Primary completion: 2027-01-01
• Completion: 2028-01-01
• First posted: 2025-11-24
• Last updated: 2025-11-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Sweden