Prevention of Internet addiction: A systematic review.

Background and aimsOut of a large number of studies on Internet addiction, only a few have been published on the prevention of Internet addiction. The aim of this study is provide a systematic review of scientific articles regarding the prevention of Internet addiction and to identify the relevant topics published in this area of interest.MethodsThe Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were adopted. The EBSCO, ProQuest Central, and PubMed databases were searched for texts published in English and Spanish between January 1995 and April 2016. A total of 179 original texts were obtained. After de-duplication and topic-relevance review, 108 texts were systematically classified and subjected to descriptive analysis and subsequent content analysis.ResultsThe results of the content analysis yielded the following thematic areas: (a) target groups, (b) the improvement of specific skills, (c) program characteristics, and (d) environmental interventions.Discussion and conclus...