Evaluation of a Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use (S-FAME)

Evaluation of a Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use in a Child and Adolescent Population Within Social Services in Light of the New Social Services Law

The Family-Centered Program for Problematic Gaming and Excessive Screen Use (FAME) is a pioneering initiative designed to address the growing challenges of excessive screen use and gaming among children and adolescents, particularly within family dynamics.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Adolescent Behavior; Family Relations; Social Media Addiction; Gaming Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use in a child and adolescent population within Social Services; Behavioral: Control

Detailed Description

The Family-Centered Program for Problematic Gaming and Excessive Screen Use (FAME) is a pioneering initiative designed to address the growing challenges of excessive screen use and gaming among children and adolescents, particularly within family dynamics. With digital media becoming one of the most prevalent leisure activities, excessive use has been linked to adverse outcomes, including depression, sleep disturbances, and family conflicts. Despite these concerns, there are no evaluated family-centered interventions in Sweden that address these issues comprehensively. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the S-FAME program, developed in collaboration with social services across two municipalities (Lund, Eslöv). The program integrates psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and social-emotional learning, focusing on both children and their families. It acknowledges that problematic screen use often develops within family contexts and aims to improve parenting practices and enhance parent-child relationships. The project aligns with the new Social Services Act, which will come into effect in July 2025, emphasizing easily accessible, preventive, and low-threshold interventions-so-called non-means-tested services. By targeting both individual and family needs, the intervention has the potential to reduce societal costs, enhance family well-being, and address health inequalities. With its innovative and scalable design, S-FAME provides a much-needed framework to tackle one of today's most pressing challenges in youth development- excessive screen use. We are a team of researchers with great experience in research as well as clinical work in the field of adolescence, social work and ANDTS (Alkohol, narkotika, droger, tobak och spel). The project is well established within the School of Social Sciences/Medical Faculty at Lund University, as well as within the innovation and development departments of two social services units. PI Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson (ECK), associate professor and senior consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry at Lund University/Region Skåne with major research areas of gaming, gambling and screens use. ECK has extensive clinical expertise and has played a key role at the Swedish Public Health Agency, contributing to the development of recommendations on child digital media use. PI ECK brings extensive experience and formal training in leading collaborative projects.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 170
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson, PhD; Phone Number: +46768871765; Email: emma.claesdotter-knutsson@skane.se
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Sabina Kapetanovic, PhD; Email: sabina.kapetanovic@hv.se

Study Locations

• Sweden
  • Lund, Sweden
    • Recruiting
    • Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic
    • Contact: Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson, MD; PhD; Phone Number: 0046768871765; Email: emma.claesdotter-knutsson@med.lu.se

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• family conflicts related to screen use
• spaeks and udnerstand swedish

Exclusion Criteria:

• se above

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Intervention; The critical components include psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and social and emotional learning. The goals are to help children and parents understand the positive and negative aspects of screen use and to prevent related problems and family conflicts. The intervention consist of 4 group mettings parents and children separate. Max 10 children per group	Behavioral: Family-centered Program for Problematic Gaming/Excessive Screen Use in a child and adolescent population within Social Services; The critical components include psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and social and emotional learning.his would be the first intervention offering help for both children and their parents. Such an intervention could be beneficial not only to individual families, but also to society at large by reducing societal costs, enhancing family well-being, and addressing health inequalities . the intervention is agroup intervention in 4 sessions with parents in one group and children in one group. The goals are to help children and parents understand the positive and negative aspects of screen use and to prevent related problems and family conflicts. T
Active Comparator: Control; This group will recieve treatment as usual. After final follow up this group will be offered an online parental intervention of 3 sessions	Behavioral: Control; This group will recieve TAU == treat ment as usual depending on the practice at the Social service they belong to

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
FCU	five items measure parent-child warmth, and three items measure parent-child conflicts	Baseline; Post treatment; 1 month post treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
SCREENS-Q (adapted) time (19) • PARCA for assessing aspects of parent-child relationship and parenting practices (22) • FCU five items measure parent-child warmth, and three items measure parent-child conflicts (23)	screening form, for valuing children and adolescent´s screen time screening form, for valuing children and adolescent´s screen time screening form, for valuing children and adolescent´s screen time	Baseline; Post treatment; 1 month post treatment
PARCA	for assessing aspects of parent-child relationship and parenting practices	Baseline; Post treatment; 1 month post treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Region Skane
• Collaborators: Lund University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 12, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 17, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): November 24, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 30, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2026
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Technology Addiction; Behavior, Addictive; Compulsive Behavior; Impulsive Behavior; Behavior; Internet Addiction Disorder; Adolescent Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2025-05262-01

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No