‘Gaming Habit Hacker’ online intervention

Category: Mental Wellbeing Innovation

Target audiences: Youth and adults with varying levels of problematic gaming severity 

Research innovator: Dr Jennifer Jiyun Park

The project

“Gaming Habit Hacker” set out to address an urgent question: how can we make treatment for gaming disorder both effective and accessible? Researchers conducted the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate a brief web-based intervention, designed for youth and adults with varying levels of problematic gaming severity who were motivated to cut down on gaming.

Participants created personalized plans based on gaming reduction strategies derived from the lived experience of other gamers who have successfully cut down. Across 28 days, participants were supported by an online coach who provided (1) feedback to strengthen gaming reduction plans and (2) weekly check-ins to help track gaming time and provide feedback. Even participants in the comparison arm were offered weekly check-ins (without feedback), as it was important that everyone had access to some form of care.

Project Background

Dr Park began this line of research in 2018 with Dr Simone Rodda. Dr Park has since devoted her academic career to understanding gaming disorder and providing support to individuals who wish to quit or better manage gaming habits. The field has grown rapidly since the World Health Organization formally recognized the disorder in the ICD-11 in 2019, but evidence-based treatment options remain limited and relatively homogeneous – typically in-person and intensive, involving several sessions. 

Many individuals seeking help with mild to moderate severity of problematic gaming fall through the cracks. This trial sought to demonstrate that low-intensity, brief interventions could reach and benefit those individuals as well as individuals with severe gaming disorder. Ultimately, this work is all about expanding the treatment landscape so that individuals struggling with gaming-related harms can find a treatment option that matches their needs and preferences, wherever they are on their journey and whatever stage of difficulty they may be experiencing.

Dr Park was able to conduct the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate a brief web-based intervention. Through this work the team were able to reach more than 200 individuals in New Zealand and Australia who were experiencing gaming-related harms.

Findings from the randomized controlled trial have been presented at multiple national and international conferences, and at the 2023 International Conference on Behavioral Addictions in South Korea. There, Dr Park met Dr Marc Potenza, the world’s leading expert in researching addictive behaviors. This meeting led her to pursue Postdoctoral Associateship at Yale University under Dr Potenza’s mentorship, where she has continued to expand on her expertise on gaming disorder and other addictive behaviours.

Through this Postdoc path, Dr Park has been able to:

  • publish novel studies on gaming disorder e.g., using a machine learning approach called connectome-based predictive modelling to identify brain networks predictive of gaming disorder severity

  • present talks and workshops on gaming disorder across the US and overseas

  • write book chapters on related topics e.g., for the new edition of the ASAM Essentials of Addiction Medicine

  • work on a book on the neuroscience of gaming disorder with Dr Potenza

  • participate in community outreach events, presenting to over 1000 youth and families.

Ember Innovations research funding support

Ember Innovations’ support gave Dr Park the rare opportunity, as a PhD student, to serve as Principal Investigator on a large-scale clinical trial. 

The Ember Research Grant was pivotal in helping advance the field of gaming disorder treatment and reaching individuals in New Zealand and Australia who had few options for treatment. Results from this trial will be published in the near future.

Ember Research Grants create the space for innovative, early-stage research that addresses unmet needs in mental health and addiction. What makes Ember’s support unique is that it isn’t only about funding projects. It’s about helping to shape a future where responses to addiction and mental health concerns are more compassionate, accessible, and effective.

— Dr Jennifer Jiyun Park

Findings, insights and outcomes

One of the most unique and unexpected findings from this randomized controlled trial was the high retention. High dropout is a persistent problem in the field of online interventions. While online interventions lower barriers to accessing treatment, they concurrently lower barriers to discontinuing treatment.

In the review of online interventions for online behavioral addictions, Dr Park’s team found that participant retention after treatment was around 65%, and retention at follow-up was far lower at around 24%, on average. In Gaming Habit Hacker, the trial of 215 participants achieved a 90% completion rate at the four-week post-intervention point and around 80% retention at the six-month follow-up for the intervention and comparison groups.

This success reflects a key strength of the study: the purposeful integration of human support delivered online. Adding a “human touch” was a choice directly informed by findings from the previously described review – specifically, that retention appeared to be a critical weakness in most prior work on online interventions for online behavioral addictions.

The online format makes Gaming Habit Hacker especially promising as a cost-effective and scalable option for stand-alone treatment or as part of blended treatment, which combines online and in-person care. Interventions like Gaming Habit Hacker can be made available to equip pre-existing health services for blended treatment.

Related publications and resources

Park, J. J., King, D. L., Wilkinson-Meyers, L., & Rodda, S. N. (2023). The effectiveness of an internet-delivered intervention “Gaming Habit Hacker” for gaming disorder: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 12.

Park, J. J., King, D. L., Wilkinson-Meyers, L., & Rodda, S. N. (2022). Content and effectiveness of web-based treatments for online behavioral addictions: systematic review. JMIR mental health, 9(9), e36662.