Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy on Loneliness and Internet Addiction in students

The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of online dialectical behavior therapy on students' feelings of loneliness and internet addiction. This was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research was made up of students aged 18 to 35 in Shiraz who were studying for one of the bachelor's or master's degrees in the academic year of 2020-2021. The research sample consisted of 40 students who were selected using a purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to two test and control groups. et al. (UCLA) 1980 and Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) 1998 were used. Online dialectical behavior therapy was implemented for the experimental group in 8 sessions for 90 minutes and twice a week for the experimental group. The results of the data analysis using multivariate covariance analysis showed that by controlling the pre-test, there is a significant difference between the post-test scores of the two groups in the variables of loneliness and internet addiction (P<0/001). This means that online dialectical behavior therapy has been effective in reducing students' feelings of loneliness and internet addiction.