A research team led by Professor Anderson Sungmin Yoon and Minah Kim of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has developed a "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Gaming (MBCT-G)" program to address internet gaming disorder among college students, and has found promising evidence of its therapeutic effectiveness. The research was conducted under the close supervision of the world-leading scholar, Willem Kuyken, director of Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and has drawn significant attention from academic circles worldwide for presenting a new therapeutic alternative-using psychological intervention to ease internet gaming disorder, a growing public health issue among young adults.
Internet gaming disorder refers to a state of excessive immersion in gaming severe enough to seriously disrupt daily life. This is particularly common among college students, who often turn to gaming to relieve academic or career-related stress as they begin living independently, away from parental supervision.
To address this problem, Professor Yoon’s research team newly adapted and modified "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy"—previously used to treat depression—to fit the specific characteristics of gaming disorder. The program combines mindfulness meditation training — which helps students observe their thoughts, emotions, and impulses objectively when a strong urge to game arises — with cognitive therapy that helps them decenter from these urges and respond more skillfully.
The research team conducted an experiment involving 46 college students at high risk of internet gaming disorder. Over the course of an eight weeks’s intervention, participating students practiced mindfulness meditation, social skills, and self-care strantegies each week, while also planning and carrying out alternative pleasurable activities—such as physical activities, social/recreational activities, and creative hobbies—that allowed them to find enjoyment in daily life beyond gaming. As a result, students who completed the program showed a meaningful reduction in gaming addiction symptoms, along with decreases in stress and anxiety.
Above all, the most significant outcome was a marked improvement in students' "self-control"—their ability to overcome the urge to game on their own. This effect remained even one month after the program ended, demonstrating a sustained effect.
Professor Yoon of SKKU explained the significance of the research, stating, " This study offers promising evidence for a psychological intervention that could help college students and adolescents break the vicious cycle of impulsively immersing themselves in gaming during particularly challenging periods in their development.." He added, "If widely adopted by college counseling centers and gaming addiction prevention centers, MBCT-G could help address IGD-related problems more efficiently, as its group-format delivery requires fewer clinical resources.."
Meanwhile, this research was supported by research funding from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency for the development of game-based digital therapeutics technology.