The impact of group counseli̇ng program based on self-determination theory on students' problematic internet use levels

The aimed of this study is to investigate the impact of group counseling program based on self-determination theory on students' problematic Internet use levels. The research group consists of 22 students from 9th, 10th and 11th grades, 11 of which are experimental and 11 are control. Experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. The data collection tools used in the study are "Problematic Internet Use-Adolescent", "Need Satisfaction Scale" and "Personal Information Form". While the psychological counseling program was applied to the experimental group for 8 weeks, no procedure was applied to the control group in this process. ANCOVA Test" and "T-Test for Independent Samples" were used to analyse data of the study. As a result of this research, it was determined that the average score of problematic Internet use of the students in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group. However, when the pre-test and post-test scores of the problematic Internet use level of the experimental group were examined, it was seen that the problematic Internet use scores decreased after the experimental procedure. In addition, it was observed that the level of need satisfaction of the students increased after the group counseling program based on the self-determination theory was applied. As a result of the research, it was determined that the mean scores of problematic Internet use before the experimental procedure did not show a significant decrease after the experimental procedure. According to the findings, it was determined that the group counseling program based on the self-determination theory was effective on the problematic Internet use levels and psychological need satisfaction of the students.