The effect of a mindfulness-based psychoeducation program on mindfulness, digital well-being, stress, problematic mobile phone use and digital addiction levels

This study aimed to examine the impact of a mindfulness-based psychoeducation program on university students' levels of mindfulness, digital well-being, stress, problematic mobile phone use, and digital addiction. In the process of preparing the program, a review of the existing literature was conducted, previously developed psychoeducation programs were examined, and necessary training was undertaken. To test the effectiveness of the prepared psychoeducation program and make improvements, a pilot application with 8 sessions was conducted on a group of 11 participants. The effectiveness of the program was tested, and necessary adjustments were made based on the findings. In the research model, there is one independent and five dependent variables. The independent variable is the "Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation Program," while the dependent variables are students' levels of mindfulness, digital well-being, stress, problematic mobile phone use, and digital addiction. The study group consists of 310 voluntary first- and second-year university students studying at Van Vocational School. A 2x3 split-plot experimental design with pre-test, post-test, follow-up test, and a control group was used in this study. For data collection, the Mindfulness Scale, Digital Well-Being Scale, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), Problematic Mobile Phone Use Scale (PMPUS), and Digital Addiction Scale (DAS) were used, and reliability analyses of these scales were conducted. Based on the collected data, 46 students were randomly assigned to the experimental (n=23) and control (n=23) groups from a group of 60 students with low digital well-being and high digital addiction levels. The experimental group consisted of 9 female and 14 male students, while the control group consisted of 12 female and 11 male students. As part of the research, the experimental group participated in an 8-session "Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation Program." At the end of the intervention program, a post-test was administered to the experimental and control groups, followed by a follow-up test. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS-26 software. In data analysis, a t-test was used to compare the initial scores of the experimental and control groups, while repeated measures ANOVA was used for repeated measurements. Additionally, Bonferroni posthoc tests were used to compare the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test scores of the scales. The results indicated that the "Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation Program" was effective in increasing mindfulness and digital well-being, and in reducing stress, problematic mobile phone use, and digital addiction, with these effects persisting in the follow-up phase. These findings were discussed in light of the literature, and recommendations were provided.