Effectiveness of a Psychological and Marital Empowerment Intervention in Reducing Problematic Internet Use and Social Media Addiction Among Women Adversely Affected by Cyberspace
Keywords:
problematic Internet use, social media addiction, psychological and marital empowerment, womenAbstract
Given the increasing psychological and social harms experienced by women in cyberspace, the present study aimed to identify the factors contributing to these harms and to develop and validate an effective intervention model for their reduction. This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, in which the first phase was conducted qualitatively and the second phase quantitatively. The qualitative phase was conducted using a content analysis approach. The quantitative phase was applied in purpose and employed a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control-group design with a two-month follow-up to validate the psychological and marital empowerment intervention package. The statistical population in the qualitative phase consisted of psychology faculty members with relevant expertise at Islamic Azad University, Yazd Branch. The statistical population in the quantitative phase included all women who attended counseling and psychological services centers in Yazd during 2024–2025. From this population, 30 women were randomly assigned to an intervention group and a control group, with 15 participants in each group. Following the pretest assessment, the intervention group received training based on the developed intervention package, whereas the control group received no intervention. After completion of the intervention sessions, the posttest was administered, followed by a follow-up assessment two months later. The quantitative data analysis indicated that the psychological and marital empowerment intervention significantly reduced problematic Internet use and social media addiction in the intervention group (p < .05), and its effects remained stable at the follow-up assessment. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed intervention package in reducing harmful cyberspace-related behaviors. Considering the importance of mitigating the adverse effects of cyberspace on women’s lives, counseling and psychological services centers are recommended to use this intervention package and incorporate psychological empowerment training and cyberspace-related coping skills into their intervention programs.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Hamidreza Peymanfar (Author); Marieh Dehghan Manshadi; Najme Sedrpoushan (Author)
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