How Effective are Serious Games for Promoting Mental Health and Health Behavioral Change in Children and Adolescents? A
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How Effective are Serious Games for Promoting Mental Health and Health Behavioral Change in Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta‑analysis Oana Alexandra David1 · Cristina Costescu1 · Roxana Cardos1 · Cristina Mogoaşe1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Background Children and adolescents are major computer and technology gadget users. While serious games hold important promises for promoting health-related behavioral change and mental health among children and adolescents, their efficacy is yet unclear. Objectives We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to offer a comprehensive picture on the evidence-based status of serious games for mental health promotion and health-related behavioral change in children and adolescents. Method We included 34 clinical and experimental randomized studies investigating the efficacy of serious games on mental health promotion and health-related behavioral change in children and adolescents. Results Results showed a small, but significant effect size with very high heterogeneity. Participants’ age, number of sessions, the length of session, and study quality significantly moderated the effect size, with younger participants, fewer and shorter sessions, and lower quality of the study being associated with higher effect sizes. The effect size was not significant for follow-up measurements. Conclusions The evidence supporting the use of serious games in children and adolescents for purposes of health promotion is limited. These conclusions must be considered with caution given the bias of publication. We need more adequately conducted studies testing well-specified serious games before we can draw clear conclusions. Keywords Systematic review · Therapeutic games · Children and adolescent · Mental health
* Oana Alexandra David [email protected] 1
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Babeș-Bolyai University, 37 Republicii St., 400015 Cluj‑Napoca, Romania
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Child & Youth Care Forum
Introduction Given the high prevalence of psychopathology in children and adolescents (Collishaw et al. 2010), the long-term negative consequences of early onset psychopathology for later functioning (Goodman et al. 2011), and the gap between the number of youth in need for treatment and those who actually receive adequate treatment (Knopf et al. 2008; Merikangas et al. 2010), offering effective therapeutic interventions is a necessity. Moreover, it is known that children and adolescents presenting chronic medical illness (e.g. diabetes, asthma) have a significantly higher risk for the development of psychiatric disorders, compared to their healthy counterpart (Pao and Bosk 2011). Currently, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered the evidence-based choice for approaching a variety of mental health (such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—A
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